The proposal to kill another 900-1000 of Yellowstone Park’s bison this winter is a national disgrace and tragedy.

The continued butchery of Yellowstone’s genetically unique wild bison is a crime against the world’s global heritage. It reflects badly on the people of Montana that tolerate and allow this annual killing to go on. It also exhibits poor judgement on the part of hunters, tribal members, and others who participate and/or directly or indirectly sanction this crime against nature and our national patrimony.

Furthermore, the annual removal of bison by hunters, tribes and/or state/federal personnel for transfer to slaughterhouses have real ecological consequences for other wildlife. Wolves, grizzlies, coyotes, ravens, magpies, and other animals kill or scavenge bison..

With harsh winter weather, a percentage of Yellowstone National Park’s bison seek out snow-free grasslands outside of the park. This is a natural movement of animals from the snowy interior of the park to relatively balmy winter range beyond the park’s northern and western borders. Yet the bison exercising this natural migration are met with a bureaucratic and lead (bullets) wall that is slowly destroying Yellowstone’s wild bison.

Yellowstone’s bison herd is genetically unique. It is one of the few bison herds in the country free of cattle genes, and one of the only bison herds that have remained continuously wild. There is genuine aesthetic and ecological value in wildness. But by slaughtering Yellowstone’s bison (or to use the clinically sanitized term “culling”), we are destroying Yellowstone’s wild bison.

First, one needs to understand why killing a thousand bison is so harmful. The park’s bison have gone through several genetic bottlenecks. At one time, the population numbered 25 animals. And previous years of slaughter and capture/shipment by the livestock industry and others outside of the park means the park’s bison have gone through repeated genetic reductions.

This is made worse by the fact that bison are a tournament species-whereby dominant bulls do the majority of all breeding. This means the “effective” breeding population is much lower than the actual population numbers and as a result so is the genetic diversity.

The bison are being killed under the pretense of protecting Montana’s livestock industry from brucellosis.This is a sham because there is no documented instance of a wild bison transmitting brucellosis to livestock.

Most bison do not carry active brucellosis bacteria. When media reports that such and such percentage of bison tested positive for brucellosis, what they are reporting is that some bison carry antibodies to the disease. Just as most of would test positive for antibodies to polio but we cannot infect others, the mere presence of antibodies does not mean an animal carries active brucellosis bacteria.

Even among those bison with active bacteria, the circumstances necessary for transmission are extremely limited. A bison cow, with active brucellosis bacteria, has to abort her fetus. Then cattle must lick the aborted fetus or its fluid during the short time when the bacteria is still alive and before scavengers like coyotes, ravens and magpies find the dead fetus and consume it.

One can vaccinate cattle against the disease, and when combined with other strategies like preventing the overlap of bison and cattle use of pastures, the risk can be contained and is negligible.

Bison bulls and calves don’t abort fetus, hence are not a threat. Yet bison bulls and calves are regularly killed demonstrating the fraudulent reasoning behind the bison slaughter.

So why is the livestock industry fighting so hard to control and kill Yellowstone bison?

The excuse used by the livestock industry is disease control. Brucellosis infection can cause abortion of a calf. That is a charade. What the livestock industry fears is the spread of bison on public lands. Since bison and cattle consume nearly the same foods. What the livestock industry wants to avoid is a debate over whether public bison or private cattle should get preferential access to public lands forage.

The removal of migratory animals is a form of domestication, The killing of Yellowstone’s bison is artificially skewing the bison herd to a younger age, and removing the natural processes of predation, starvation, and other factors that normally affect these animals. We are slowly destroying Yellowstone’s wild bison.

The state of Montana is particularly culpable in the continued destruction of the Park’s wild bison. The state has outlawed the shipment of live bison outside of a small zone except for transfer to slaughterhouses. This policy makes it impossible to transfer bison to other suitable public lands in Montana, as well as to Indians reservations which want to start bison herds of their own. .

Unfortunately, some tribes are implicated in the bison debacle by killing bison as they move out of the park and by accepting the meat of bison captured and slaughtered. Their participation in the bison slaughter provides moral cover to the livestock industry’s dirty deeds.

It would be helpful if Native American tribes united in opposition to the bison slaughter as they have come out in opposition to grizzly delisting.

Tribes by their long traditional association with bison, could use their treaty rights and moral authority to advocate for expansion of Yellowstone bison on adjacent public lands of the Gallatin/Custer National. Forest, as well as support transplants to other large public lands holdings like the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and Pryor Mountains/Bighorn Canyon area of Montana, the Red Desert and Upper Green River areas of Wyoming, the INNEL and Craters of the Moon area of Idaho, the Little Missouri Grasslands of North Dakota, as well as using their treaty rights to challenge the state’s ban on transportation of live bison to tribal lands.

In terms of brucellosis threat to livestock, industry should start their insurance program that would reimburse any rancher whose herds contracted the disease from wildlife—whether elk or bison as well as require and assist ranchers near Yellowstone to vaccinate their herds against brucellosis.

In addition, the retirement of public lands grazing allotments, both surrounding Yellowstone as well as potential sites for new wild bison herds, would reduce present and future potential conflicts.

Yellowstone’s wild bison must be recognized as a valued wildlife animal in Montana and throughout the West and that protection of its unique genetic heritage is worthy of protection. We as a society have a moral obligation to enhance and expand Yellowstone’s bison to the American West.