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Ted S. Warren / AP
A group of bison grazes, Monday, Feb. 14, 2011, just inside Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner, Mont. U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell in Helena, Montana, issued a ruling Monday, Feb. 14, 2011 in which he denied a request from wildlife advocates to stop the slaughter of potentially hundreds of wild bison from Yellowstone National Park that had attempted to migrate into Montana.
Ted S. Warren / AP
A government horseback rider hazes bison to move them from one location to another, Monday, Feb. 14, 2011, just inside Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner, Mont.
Ted S. Warren / AP
Bison are shown inside a corral facility along the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, Monday, Feb. 14, 2011, near Gardiner, Mont. Hundreds of bison are being held at the facility after they left the snowed-in park to find food at lower elevations.
For more about this issue, see a documentary film on the topic, a summary from the US Dept. of Agriculture, an activist group trying to stop the killing, and a comment from the director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
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There has never been a case of brucellosis transmitted from bison to cattle! There is a solution to stop the brucellosis in elk and bison, yet government officials will not pay for the technology!
The Bison has been Buffaloed.
It's been obvious for years that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials have been in bed with the cattle industry. At the very least, they're pathetically lazy. At the worst, they must be accepting bribes. How else can we explain the fact that they never test bison for brucellosis?
What gives them the right to arbitrarily massacre bison? These noble animals were on this continent hundreds of years before European colonists introduced cattle to this part of the world. They deserve much more respect!
I have a solution that has evidently been too simple for Montana officials and cattle ranchers to grasp: Test each buffalo that wanders out of Yellowstone (with neutral observers monitoring the process). If it is not infected with brucellosis, attach a tag to its ear to prove to others that its been tested.
The bison are the responsibility of the federal government, not the state of Montana. The feds allow Montana to be stuck with the problem. The bison belong to the feds, not the state. And anyone who talks about brucellosis should follow the history of what it took to eradicate that deadly disease in livestock and humans. What other contagious disease do you want to disregard?
Sorry - there has to be a better way to manage this problem than to slaughter one of the last free roaming buffalo herds. They are our heritage. Find a better way!. Is there scientific evidence to support the transmission of brucellosis from buffalo to cattle???? If not - call off the slaughter.
The problem is grossly overstated.
Until about 25 years ago the park service routinely slaughtered 500 or more bison a year to help with the overgrazing problem.
Besides, IF you are a "purist" these bison are NOT endigenous to the park at all. The park bison was originally the Wood Buffalo, a different subspecies and hald a different ecological nitch. The genetic makeup of the park bison is most likely well over 75% plains bison.