Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

It pains me to tell all of you who love the buffalo that the Department of Livestock shot a bull bison dead in the field on Tuesday, June 26, 2001. Their excuses were public safety, fear of property damage, and livestock health. (fear of transmittal of brucellosis)

Buffalo Field Campaign offers a free fence-repair service, and we will fix any private property damaged by wildlife, especially by buffalo.

Even theoretically, only female bison COULD transmit brucellosis to cattle. This disease is spread through infected fetus or afterbirth. The DoL know this.

In their press release, the DoL claimed to have successfully hazed 1440 bison back into the park from the National Forest since this season began in September. This is a deliberate lie to let the public think how good they were this year. These agencies have fully realized that people are starting to keep an eye on them, that people care a whole lot about what they are doing out here in Montana. They need to try harder than ever to make excuses.

The DoL did not try to move the bull back in the park that day. They went out and shot him because he had crossed our invisible human-made line after May 15.

Now is the time to write letters if this makes you angry. Some of you know that in the past two years 90,000 people signed our petition, which was virtually ignored. Personal letters, even if short, have a lot more impact. Let those who are in charge know how you feel about the slaughter of Americas last free-roaming consistently wild herd of buffalo.

The back page of our newsletter has addresses of those officials most involved/responsible. I urge you also to call or write personal letters to your Senators and Congressmen. Ask them where they stand on the issue of the Yellowstone bison herd. This is a national issue and it is important that these people know that their states care too.

On a brighter note, we are doing great with our outreach in Yellowstone. Yesterday we broke our records. Over 400 people took a newsletter from us at Old Faithful, and we discussed the issue with 180 different people. It lifted our hearts a little, after what had happened the day before.

We give a heartfelt thank you to all of you for your letters and calls of support, your prayers for the buffalo, and all the things you do to help protect them.

We will be tabling in the Tetons soon, and are in need of camp food. If you have Y2K supplies lurking around your basement or shelves, and youre not sure how youll ever eat all those dry goods, instant soups and dehydrated fruit, these are things we can use and it would be tax deductible for you!

Until the next update, thanks again from all of us here.

For the Buffalo,
Felixa

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

"The so-called random shooting at the Montana borders is actually eliminating or depleting entire maternal lineages, therefore this action will cause an irreversible crippling of the gene pool. Continued removal of genetic lineages will change the genetic makeup of the herd, thus it will not represent the animal of 1910 or earlier. It would be a travesty to have people look back and say we were "idiots" for not understanding the gene pool."

Bison have developed a natural resistance genetically as long as thay have enough to eat, limited stress and are not consumed by other disease. There is no magic bullet in wildlife disease, Therefore management is important. Vaccines are one management tool and one component, but genetic structure is neccessary for future management. Every animal which is removed from the breeding population can no longer contribute to the genetic variability of the herd."

Remarks made by Dr. Joe Templeton, Texas A& M University, Dept. of Veterinary Pathobiology, to the GYIBC on May 21, 1998