The ancestral calving grounds are anything but tranquil this year. These bison calves and their mothers were slated to be rounded up and shipped to slaughter tomarrow, May 31. A flurry of phone calls has prompted Montana to delay the round-up until Monday, June 4.

The Montana Department of Livestock  (DOL) has set up a bison trap near the West Yellowstone airport, on state land and they intend to begin capturing approximately 300 wild buffalo - including tiny newborn babies and their whole families - starting Thursday.

At an "emergency" Board of Livestock meeting in the Governor's office Tuesday, the decision was made by Montana's acting state veterinarian Jeanne Rankin:  the agents will capture and ship all the buffalo to slaughter without testing for brucellosis exposure.  Little buffalo calves between one month to a week old will be captured, separated from their moms, and join their family members at the slaughterhouse.

Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis was asked at the meeting Tuesday if capturing and transporting the buffalo deeper into Yellowstone would be feasible.  While (ironically) the DOL said it is feasible, Suzanne Lewis shot down this option.  Apparently Suzanne Lewis would rather forfeit the lives of America's last wild buffalo.  She said, "it has never been a policy of the Interagency Bison Management Plan to haul bison into the Park."  In other words, she's attempting to wash her hands of this atrocity, handing the fate of these buffalo over to Montana, who intend to haul them all to slaughter.

These buffalo are being charged with the "crime" of trying to live wild and free;  in other words, they didn't "stick in the Park" (as if they were velcro) and they are not "responding to hazing" (as if they should behave as cattle).   The decision to trap and slaughter comes hot on the heels of brucellosis being discovered in a Montana cattle herd, far to the north and east of Yellowstone, far from any migration route of wild buffalo, far from Yellowstone National Park. 

There are no cattle currently in the West Yellowstone area and the majority of the bison to be captured and slaughtered pose NO risk of bacteria transmission.  Because the bacteria can only be transmitted through contaminated reproductive materials, bison bulls, yearlings, non-pregnant females, calves, and mothers with calves CANNOT transmit the bacteria. Bison are not to blame. Wild bison have never transmitted the livestock disease brucellosis to cattle, and this incident is not their fault either.  But the cattle industry wants to blame someone, and as always, they set their sights on wildlife.

These agencies are correctly concerned about the black eye they will receive for committing this act against the nation's last wild buffalo.

MONTANA GOVERNOR BRIAN SCHWEITZER:  Demand that Schweitzer keep his campaign promise to provide tolerance for bison in Montana.
(406) 444-3111 (phone)
(406) 444-5529 (fax)
governor@mt.gov (email)

MONTANA ACTING STATE VET JEANNE RANKIN:  Urge her to withdraw her decision to slaughter Yellowstone bison calves and family groups.  Remind her you are boycotting beef and your friends are joining you!
(406) 444-1895 (phone)

(800) 523-3162 (phone)
(406) 444-1929 (fax)

jrankin@mt.gov  (email)

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS:  Ask her if it's really worth the lives of 300 wild buffalo, including newborn calves, to have Montana ship them to slaughter rather than deeper into the Park.

(307) 344-2002 (phone)
(307) 344-2005 (fax)

suzanne_lewis@nps.gov OR yell_superintendent@nps.gov (email)

Click here to see pictures of the May bison babies.

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