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 Buffalo Hazers
Menace Traffic
In Montana
By Stephany
Seay
Department of Livestock Agents Endanger
Motorists Hazing Bison Against Agreement
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. -- The Montana Department of
Livestock's
(DOL) massive bison hazing operation on Tuesday and Wednesday is
aggravating
bison migration and endangering motorists traveling highway 191 and 287
near West Yellowstone.
Commerce, tourism and local
residents are being adversely impacted by DOL activities.
Buffalo Field Campaign helps facilitate safe highway crossings
for bison and
warns
motorists of their presence on the road. Prior to the DOL's
hazing
operation, the bison had safely migrated to Gallatin
National Forest's Horse Butte Peninsula,
public land
where cattle never graze. Bison are supposed to be tolerated
there,
according to adaptations made to the Interagency Bison Management Plan
in
November 2006.
The IBMP
adaptations memorandum can be viewed at:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legal/adaptivemanagement.html.
"According to the adaptive changes, these buffalo should have been left
alone," said Stephany Seay, spokesperson for Buffalo Field
Campaign.
"There are no cattle within 40 miles of here, and now hundreds of bison
are having to cross the highway again, unnecessarily."
The Department of Livestock's agent in charge of field operations, Rob
Tierney,
made it clear that he was not familiar with the specifics of the
agreement or
its timelines. When asked why DOL was not implementing the
changes he
said that the agreement only applied to bull bison, yet it applies to
all
bison. This week's hazing operations took place a full month
earlier than
specified in the IBMP agreement, which allows for the adaptive changes
until
May 15.
"What is the point of having an agreement if Montana's State Veterinarian refuses
to apply
that agreement and is given full discretion to do so?" asked BFC
Project
Director Dan Brister. "What could be more 'low risk' than native
bison on National Forest land where cattle never graze?"
 The DOL forced
the buffalo in the opposite direction of their migration, pushing them
back
over Highway 191. Bison follow instincts rather than political
boundaries, so migration has resumed and they - again - have to cross
the
highway.
On Tuesday and Wednesday thirteen DOL and other IBMP agency law
enforcement
vehicles were present during the hazes. By Thursday the agents
were gone
and the bison had resumed migration. No law enforcement efforts
are made
to help warn motorists of bison along the highway.
Mike Mease, BFC Campaign Coordinator raises serious concerns, "By
repeatedly hazing the buffalo before they are ready to return to the
Park on
their own, the DOL is putting both motorists and bison in unnecessary
danger." There has never
been a documented case of wild bison transmitting the European
livestock
disease brucellosis to cattle, even prior to implementation of
Interagency
Bison Management Plan.
American Bison once spanned the continent, numbering between 30 and 50
million.
The Yellowstone bison are genetically unique and are America's
only continuously wild
herd, numbering fewer than 3,600 animals, .01 percent of the bison's
former
population.
1,912 bison have been killed since 2000 under the Interagency Bison
Management
Plan. Last winter Federal and State agencies killed or authorized
the
killing of more than 1,010 bison. So far this winter two bison
were
captured and sent to slaughter by Montana Department of Livestock
agents and
hunters have killed 58.
Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) is
the only group working in the field, every day,
to stop the slaughter of the wild Yellowstone
buffalo. BFC has proposed real alternatives to
the current mismanagement of Yellowstone bison
that can be viewed at
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/solutions05.html.
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