Buffalo Field Campaign
P.O. Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
Phone (406) 646-0070
Fax (406) 646-0071
E-mail buffalo@wildrockies.org
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo

Park Service Slaughters 260 Wild Buffalo Inside Yellowstone
Domesticates Another 198 Captive Wild Buffalo

For Immediate Release:  March 18, 2004
Contact: Ted Fellman (406) 646-0070

Gardiner, MT - The National Park Service (NPS) will send another 76 wild buffalo to slaughter in the next days, bringing the total number of buffalo killed in the past month on the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park to 260.  Last March the Park Service killed 231 wild Yellowstone buffalo.  There has never been a documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild buffalo to livestock.

Currently 198 buffalo are being held at the Stephens Creek trap, 113 of them are yearlings that have been vaccinated with an ineffective cattle vaccine.  Peer reviewed scientific studies have concluded that RB51 offers no significant protection for brucellosis to bison.  The Park Service has indicated that no more buffalo can be held in the trap until later this spring.  Any additional buffalo captured this year will be shipped to slaughter without being tested for exposure to brucellosis.  The last 42 buffalo being shipped to slaughter this week were not tested.

"Buffalo slaughter is becoming an almost daily routine in Yellowstone," said Dan Brister of the Montana-based Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC). "With rangers luring buffalo into traps with trails of hay, handing them over to stock inspectors who ship them to slaughter, and inoculating them with cattle vaccines and ear tagging them, we should start calling it Yellowstone National Ranch."

Yellowstone is the only place in America continuously occupied by native buffalo.  The park provided sanctuary to 23 individuals that survived the 19th century near extinction.  The Yellowstone herd is the largest remaining population of genetically pure bison. Slaughtering bison is in direct contradiction with the Park Service's mandate to protect park resources unimpaired for future generations.

"The National Park Service's mission includes conserving wildlife, yet they have systematically harassed, captured, vaccinated, confined, slaughtered, and shot members of the Yellowstone buffalo herd over the past month," remarked BFC coordinator Ted Fellman.  "Captured buffalo are subjected to gruesome testing procedures, held in place by head clamps with noses pinched by metal rings.  It is a cruel and bloody sight.  And it is being carried out with our tax dollars by Park Service employees responsible for preserving this last herd of wild buffalo in America.  They are domesticating this unique herd, destroying the wild quality that makes them a national treasure."

According to a press release issued by the park, the current slaughter is designed to keep buffalo "away from cattle grazing adjacent to the park."  The closest livestock are located on the Royal Teton Ranch (RTR), whose owners received more than 13 million tax dollars in 1998 for land and conservation easements intended to provide winter range for native buffalo.  Earlier this week, a local game warden hazed two buffalo on foot from near the Royal Teton Ranch.  Although Randy Wuertz works for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, he also has about 25 head of cattle on RTR land.  About 180 cows continue to graze there, while wild buffalo are slaughtered to protect them.

"It's a conflict of interest to have a local game warden hazing native buffalo to protect his own cattle grazing on land that should be designated winter range," said Mike Mease of the BFC.  "They are hazing buffalo right to the trap where they are being conditioned by all the hay that is left there as bait.  Wild buffalo are being managed to death."

In the past ten years the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) and NPS have slaughtered 2,774 buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park.  Yellowstone buffalo slaughter is slated to cost taxpayers nearly $3 million a year until 2015.

The slaughter has prompted members of Congress to introduce the Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act (H.R. 3446), which will place a three-year ban on the capture and slaughter of Yellowstone buffalo, dismantle the Stephens Creek trap, and allow buffalo access to historic public lands habitat immediately adjacent to the park.  It has more than 75 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is the only group working in the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo.  Volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional winter habitat and advocate for their protection.  Daily patrols stand with the buffalo on the ground they choose to be on and document every move made against them.

###