YELLOWSTONE BEGINS TRANSFERRING BISON FOR SLAUGHTER
Source: AP
BY MATTHEW BROWN
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Yellowstone National Park has begun shipping wild bison for slaughter as part of a plan to reduce the park's population by as many as 900 animals this winter.
On Wednesday and Thursday, more than 150 bison captured near the park's northern border with Montana were removed from holding, loaded onto trailers and shipped off, according to the Buffalo Field Campaign, a wildlife advocacy group.
There were 4,900 bison in the park last summer. For more than two decades, officials have tried to curb the animals' winter migration into Montana to guard against potential disease transmission to livestock.
Park spokesman Al Nash confirmed the shipments of recently-captured animals for slaughter. But he said the park no longer plans to offer timely updates on how many bison are captured and shipped.
FULL story at link.
Interagency Bison Management Plan: : http://ibmp.info
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_YELLOWSTONE_BISON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-22-18-22-24
= new reply since forum marked as read
Last I heard, a city in Montana was told not to drink their water -- oh, they've lifted the ban.
And I sure don't like their ban on timely updates. Why -- do they plan to lead the bison to water and make them drink?
rocktivity
It's very stupid, f'd up program that has been killing our wildlife to satisfy the cattle barons over who gets to eat the grass. They claim a hand full of stupid, not based on the science reasons for the need to kill off bison but it's really very similar to the RWNJs in our government claiming all the stupid crapola they come up with like the US being a christian nation. It's that stupid. the cattle barons have been losing the oligarchic control they once enjoyed for nearly a century and this is one of the death throes of that bygone era in this part of the planet. It's stupid, it's criminal and we pay over $3 million a year to fund this travesty.
Read the whole story here:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/
WARNING: Some of the videos are NSFW and definitely graphically gory.
Pisses me off just thinking about it. Mind you, I live near enough to the park to have a bison occasionally pass through the property where I live, and I love it and I love them. Bison are intelligent, they recognize individual humans and know who the assholes are, and those are the only people who need to be concerned about them. they will attack your vehicle if you have been a jerk to any member of a family group or even an individual. They are marvelous and we should be protecting them, especially the Yellowstone bison since all the others that you see around the country are interbred with cows making this group genetically pure.
As I said, red herring. It is about who gets to eat the grass when you boil down the fluff surrounding the argument.
Some points to consider:
Brucella abortis was passed on to the YNP bison... all remaining 12 or 14 of them... 100 years ago by the Army who was managing the park at the time. They were concerned that the calves would starve so they fed them milk from their cows to keep them from starving and it was passed to the bison from the Army's cattle who were kept out at the Lamar Valley post.
So eventually the cattle barons, having ultimate power in this neck of the woods back then* came to realize that the grass is sparse and if the elk and bison are eating it, the cattle - who don't belong here - would not have enough acreage per cow of grass to sustain them started making a stink about the bison and elk. Eventually they figured out that the brucellosis issue was a good argument and it worked for decades. But science has thwarted that argument for decades now. The cattle industry are still trying to throw their weight around over the issue and they are losing.
Why? Because after years of studies, it has been shown that there has never been a case of brucelosis EVER being transferred from bison to cattle, even to this day. And if the Montana cattle barons really wanted to address this issue they would choose to vaccinate their goddamn cows... or take them east where the main question is, how many cows can you put on an acre of grass as opposed to the question in the mountains is, how many acres do you need for ONE COW?
Your argument is the same sad, worn out bluster I/we've been hearing for decades and it is complete BS.
The park can actually support 4.000+ bison but they have to leave the park (boundaries of which are entirely political and which bison don't recognize when seeking food especially in winter) and their traditional calving grounds outside the western boundary. Not to mention they go back into the park of their own accord in summer when the few cattle trucked in to the area from elsewhere show up.
Brucella abortis is specific in how it is transferred from animal to animal which requires that the animal to be infected has to actually lick o consume the placenta of an aborted calf - within a couple hours of the event - to actually become infected. Just try to get your cows who show up months after the bison return to the park to slurp up some fresh placenta from an aborted bison calf. Go on, I'm waiting.
And do you know what? Elk are the transporters of the disease in the area BUT they have a well financed lobby so they aren't harassed and run to death while being hazed back into the park by a State of Montana Agency (MT Dept of Livestock to be exact) who think they should be managing wildlife on federally administered public lands at taxpayer expense... >$3million/year (the get new p/u trucks and snowmobiles not to mention the use of helicopters every year for this event...).
*The cattle barons wouldn't have come out here to exploit the grazing (non) opportunity out here is the government hadn't killed off all the bison, put the Native Americans on reservations and sanitized the region of predators and given them $$ incentives. There is not way to actually make the industry profitable without all the incentives that the government - actually we the taxpayers - give them. This is the real issue.
Sure, brucellosis is an ugly illness for humans and causes cows who are infected to abort their first calf but you really have to work at it to get it, unless you graze your cows around elk. And it doesn't kill the infected cows but it can deplete your profits when it comes to calving time. Best response would be to vaccinate your cows or go graze them someplace else. You know, the whole brucellosis issue, if you are truly concerned about it would be avoided by grazing your cattle just about anywhere else on the planet than here. Same goes for those who whine about them hanging around their trophy homes, could build them just about anywhere else on the planet to avoid the problem perceived.
do you understand the difference between domesticated and WILDlife? If you start treating the wildlife with all kind of drugs, like they do with the elk in Western Wyoming, is it still wildlife?
If the bison were left alone and not terrorized for the sake of a dying industry, there would be no problem. And really, it's basically one very rich hobby rancher that is being appeased here. Birth control is plain stupid for wildlife when it is the domesticated cattle that should be tended to better. Aside form not accepting the protections they should be affording their domestic cattle, the ranchers could just do their damned job. If you were out here, you'd understand how pampered by the government (with our tax $$) is with these overly romanticized cowfolk.
People really need to study how this crap is going down and why it matters even to the folks in NYC and elsewhere. It's our wildlife, who spend the majority of their time inside Yellowstone NP, they come out in winter to find forage and there's a small area (look this up on a map to the west of the park you'll see a lake called Hebgen lake with a peninsula jutting into it) and that's where the bison from the western herd like to go and bear their young. They've been doing this for a very long time and wasn't a problem until cattle ranchers and a few 1%ers decided they wanted to take that away from the wildlife. But they also want the ecosystem that the wildlife provide. You can't have it both ways, nature doesn't work that way.
You won't find them feeding the elk anywhere else. And Furthermore, the feeding grounds are also disease breeding grounds even though they treat the pellets with medications etc.
Another swing and a miss.
mistake to spewing about something that is not only in my front yard but also one of my specialties.
Thanks for your tip though. Much appreciated. As you can see from all my comments that it's a big deal for me because I, along with others who have invested far more than I, have to call BS on the constant misinformation about this and other issues regarding the wildlife in and around Yellowstone ecosystem. This is important.
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The thread and your post and links on this. Great information. .you should put up a post about it. Can't have too many on the subject.
Have a great night
I'll just fill in the blanks since I'm here. The number of comments will keep it from sinking to the bottom of the pile.
Have a great evening yourself.
Another Salazar deal? All nature is the enemy, don'tcha know!
Maybe, Mr. Nash and his corporate ranchers should be asking the Cheyenne, Lakota, Arapahoe , Shoshoni, Blackfeet, Sioux what they want done with the Tatanka, they know how to use the animal and for what ceremonies and it is off there sacred ground.
He forgets that it was and always has been the European cattle that was introduced to this land and the cattle have the brucellosis disease to this land, just like the chicken pox and measles.
They always say the native species is the danger and cause the disease---don't think so
I don't care WHO ends up with the meat!
This is a disgrace!
There could be organized spring hunt groups. with no need for helicopter round-ups terrorizing all the Yellowstone animals for miles around.
And a huge savings of OUR Federal money the Gov. pays private contractors about a thousand per animal to helicopter round-up and ship to slaughter. Many animals are wounded, crippled, suffer and die on those round-ups. Even though the gov says, 'we turn over the meat', that meat costs the taxpayers about $100 a lb or more. Its also torture to me and plenty of other people to see the suffering the buffalo have to endure from our Govs crappy management.
In 1832, the artist George Catlin may have been the first to suggest the idea of a national preserve when after ascending the Missouri River, ironically on the steamboat Yellowstone, he suggested that much of the West should be set aside for the Indians and buffalo to roam in their natural state: "A nation's Park, in all their wild freshness of their nature's beauty."
http://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/trs/petition/DOW-NeedlessBisonSlaughter
Sponsored by: Defenders of Wildlife
The killing may begin any day, and it has the potential to be the worst slaughter of wild bison since 2008 when 1,600 bison were sent to their deaths simply for roaming outside Yellowstone's boundaries.
Yellowstone is home to the most important herd of wild bison in North America. Agencies plan to slaughter up to 900 of this 4,900-strong herd in the next few months, once again preventing the herd’s expansion and setting back bison restoration.
Bison are icons of the American West. Slaughtered by the millions a century ago, they were driven to the brink of extinction. Today, we have an opportunity to reverse this national wildlife tragedy. Tell Governor Steve Bullock and Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk to stop the slaughter and let bison roam outside of Yellowstone National Park!
SIGN at link. You must click TWICE!!!
Thank you for posting this thread for the exposure and the petition!!
