GARDINER, Montana, - The National Park Service has captured and sent to slaughter 184 healthy bison from Yellowstone National Park this week, a total that could grow to 300 within the next few days. The bison, or buffalo, have been rounded up for slaughter because they are migrating across the northern boundary of the national park and pose a risk of infecting cattle with brucellosis, park officials say.
Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause spontaneous abortion and stillborn calves.
Mindfully.org
note:
We don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but
isn't roaming what bison sort of like to do?
Somebody should tell the bison about the
Interagency Bison Management Plan.
"We can not allow them to leave the park and we can not keep them in," said Yellowstone National Park spokeswoman Marsha Karle.
Yellowstone National Park is home to the nation's last free roaming wild bison.
The National Park Service, Karle explained, is operating under the terms of the Interagency Bison Management Plan, signed by the agency, the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.
Under the management plan, state and federal agency officials attempt to haze bison that leave Yellowstone back within the park's borders. Bison that cannot be moved back usually are captured and tested for brucellosis and those that test positive are slaughtered.
The National Park Service sometimes uses helicopters to haze bison back into the park. (Photo courtesy Buffalo Field Campaign) But if the population of bison within the park exceeds 3,000 and the animals are migrating onto cattle grazing lands outside the park, the Park Service can slaughter the bison without testing for the disease. The latest estimate finds the bison population at some 3,800.
The captured bison are transported by the DOL for slaughter, and the meats, animals and hides are donated to Native American groups and other organizations.
Karle said the park service has tried to haze the migrating bison back into the park, but some have continued to roam beyond the boundaries. The bison killed this week were captured at the Stephens Creek trap inside the park near its north entrance.
Conservationists and some local residents are outraged by a plan and a policy that they find unacceptable and unbelievable.
"Once again the dark cloud of anguish and killing casts a shadow on our town and America's first national park," said Marc Catellier, of the Gardiner Bear Creek Council.
Conservationists contend the park could support more than 3,000 bison and that it is ridiculous to slaughter the animals, which are free roaming, when they cross park boundaries established by humans.
"These animals have a right to exist," said Ted Fellman, media coordinator for Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), which is the only group in the field working to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo.
"This is the only continuously free roaming herd of bison in the country. Yellowstone National Park should be a safe place for wildlife," Fellman said.
Killing the bison is not about science, Fellman argues, it is about land use and politics.
Severe winters force bison to roam further for food. (Photo by Steve Maslowski courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)) The "genuine carrying capacity" of the park has never been established, Fellman said. In forming the management plan, federal and state officials cited a 1998 National Academy of Sciences report found that when the population exceeds 3,000 and winters are severe, the bison are much more likely to forage for food outside the park.
It is bison leaving the park and possibly coming into with cattle that makes Montana state officials nervous. They worry the bison could infect cattle with brucellosis.
The U.S. government and cattle industry have spent billions of dollars to contain and eradicate brucellosis in cattle and have been successful in these efforts.
State officials say the economic risk of infection, which could cause the state to lose its certification as brucellosis free, justifies the slaughter.
But a spokeswoman for Montana's DOL could not quantify how many of the state's 2.7 million cattle graze on lands adjacent to the park.
"If there is a transmission, all of the cattle are at risk," said Karen Cooper, public affairs officer for the DOL.
Fellman says BFC estimates there are only some 2,000 cattle at risk of direct contact with bison and believes Montana officials exaggerate the risk.
There is no known case of bison transferring the disease to domestic livestock, Fellman said, and several studies done on captured and slaughtered Yellowstone bison indicate that less than 20 percent of the animals were infected.
Bull and calves cannot transmit the disease. It is transferred by the consumption of afterbirth from a mothering animal that is infected.
"This is a battle to control public land and some see wildlife is a threat to grazing rights," Fellman said. "A far better solution to this problem than killing buffalo would be to develop an effective vaccine for cattle."
Cattle can be vaccinated against brucellosis, and Cooper said cost is not the issue.
Brucellosis can only be transmitted by calving females. (Photo by Jesse Achtenberg courtesy FWS) The vaccine is not 100 percent effective, she said and "because we are a brucellosis free state ranchers should not have to vaccinate." "As long as the bison are in Yellowstone National Park, the Department of Livestock has no issue with them," Cooper said. "It is when they exit they park and enter the state of Montana that we have to take action."
Last year, park service and Montana state officials shot 202 bison that strayed beyond the park's boundaries.
That policy is inconsistent, Fellman contends, because elk can carry brucellosis and there are documented cases of transmission from elk to cattle. Elk, which far outnumber bison and are permitted to range beyond the park, are not considered a brucellosis concern by federal or state agencies.
Cattle and bison have intermingled in the Grand Teton National Park for 40 years, with no evidence of brucellosis transmission.
A group of some 52 Indian tribes have offered to take the excess bison to roam on Indian reservations, but Montana state officials say the brucellosis concern is too great to allow the bison out of the park.
Millions of bison once roamed across the Great Plains of the United States, and the animal has deep cultural significance to many Native American tribes.
Although park service officials downplay the fear, there is concern this culling of the herd could damage the genetic diversity of the bison within Yellowstone. The overall population consists of several smaller groups, and conservationists worry that the park service's rounding up of migrating groups of bison could wipe out certain genetic lineages.
The Yellowstone herd is descended from 23 wild bison that survived the mass eradication of the 19th century. It is the largest remaining single population of genetically pure bison.
Millions of bison once roamed the nation's Great Plains. (Photo courtesy FWS) If population control were truly necessary, Fellman said, then a scattered, random removal of individuals would be more conducive to maintaining genetic diversity. Karle said park service biologists do not share concerns about the possible impacts to genetic diversity.
The interagency management plan would have to be revisited and reopened to public comment for the current policy to be changed, Karle explained.
The agency has little choice but to carry out the plan, Karle said, even though no one seems happy with it.
"This is a very emotional issue and people really have a strong feeling about Yellowstone's bison," Karle said. "They are really majestic animals. Seeing them loaded up to be sent to slaughter doesn't feel good to anybody."
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