Copyright © 2002 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

West Yellowstone, MT - Fifty million buffalo once graced North America. Migrating in response to the seasons, the rain, and the growth of grasses they were the largest concentration of mammals ever known to exist. Millions were gunned down in the second half of the 19th century. By the early 1900s all but a few of the once teeming herds were gone. By 1902 only 23 wild buffalo survived, taking refuge in the remote Yellowstone backcountry. Their direct descendants, the only continuously wild population in America, are alive today in Yellowstone and Montana.

Their future is uncertain. The state of Montana and public agencies have resurrected the slaughter, killing more than 3,000 native buffalo since 1985. During heavy winters, snow and ice obscure the grass in the park and hunger pushes the buffalo to lower elevations across the Montana border. When they cross this invisible line on their search for food, buffalo step into a death zone.

America's last wild bison are hazed from snowmobiles, helicopters, and ATVs; trapped and confined in cattle pens; and shot dead on their native range. The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), an agency representing the livestock industry, dictates the bison's fate. Blaming the slaughter on the bovine reproductive disease brucellosis, the DOL slaughters buffalo that exit Yellowstone. Although there has never been a documented transmission of brucellosis from wild bison to livestock, the agencies continue to waste nearly three million dollars a year on the harassment and slaughter of America's last wild, free-roaming herd of buffalo.

The state of Montana blames brucellosis for the present buffalo slaughter, saying the presence of bison in the state poses a grave economic threat to the livestock industry. Buffalo originally contracted brucellosis--a European livestock disease that can cause cattle to abort their first calf--from cows. Montana argues that it has spent millions of dollars to eradicate the disease from its cattle in order to be certified as brucellosis-free by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This certification allows livestock producers to export cattle without testing for brucellosis.

Federal regulations, however, don't justify the state's stance. Montana's brucellosis-free status isn't jeopardized by infected wildlife. Infection must occur among cattle. Even then, Montana would retain its brucellosis-free status until a second cattle herd became infected.

The risk of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle is so remote that not a single such occurrence has ever been documented. South of Yellowstone in Grand Teton National Park, where bison and livestock have coexisted for more than 40 years--and where a greater percentage of the bison herd is infected--brucellosis has never appeared in cattle. North of the Park in 1989 more than 900 bison migrated from Yellowstone onto lands occupied by livestock. Fearing brucellosis, the state tested twenty cattle herds and found not a single trace of the disease. In its 1998 study, Brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the National Academy of Sciences concluded, "The current risk of transmission from Yellowstone National Park bison to cattle is low."

Brucellosis is present in many species including elk, deer, moose, coyotes, wolves, bears, and bison. There are more than twenty times the number of elk than bison in the Yellowstone ecosystem, and elk have transmitted brucellosis to livestock, yet elk are allowed to roam freely between the park and Montana unmolested by the DOL.

Elk hunting is a major source of revenue for Montana, bringing in more than twelve million dollars a year in licenses and permits. The point is not to incite the livestock industry against elk, but to note the inconsistency of Montana's logic. If brucellosis is such a grave threat, why is infection among the elk so willfully ignored?

Brucellosis is a disease affecting the reproductive system. In order for buffalo to infect cattle, the cattle would have to eat placenta or the aborted fetus of an infected female buffalo. Bulls, non-pregnant cows, and calves--which don't shed such reproductive tissues--pose no risk. Because bison consume the afterbirth of their own offspring and rarely abort, even pregnant cows pose very little risk of infecting cattle. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the USDA agency responsible for certifying a state as brucellosis-free, has stated that the presence of bulls and other low-risk bison such as calves and non-pregnant cows do not jeopardize Montana's brucellosis-free status. "We don't feel there's a need to kill every bison that comes out of the park," said APHIS spokesperson Patrick Collins in a reference to the DOL's intolerance for migrating bull bison.

Yet the state doesn't discriminate in its policy of killing bison wandering into Montana. During the winter of 2000 APHIS made public its objections to Montana's indiscriminate slaughter and assured the state that the presence of low risk bison would not jeopardize Montana's brucellosis-free status. The DOL did not amend its policies in light of the APHIS objections. All bison, regardless of sex or age, continue to find themselves under the gun.

West of the park, where all the killing has taken place in recent winters, bison and cattle do not even come in contact with one another. Because cattle can not survive the area's severe winters, ranchers only graze them from June to October, when the buffalo occupy their summer range inside Yellowstone. Michael Finley, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park from 1994 to 2001, pointed this out during a February 1999 interview with Nightline ABC: "There's really no reason to kill these bison at the times of year when they're outside of the park and there are no cattle present," he said. The brucella bacteria, which dies in a few hours of exposure to direct sunlight, is not the driving force behind the state's zero-tolerance bison policy. It is a smoke screen for a policy that runs much deeper.

What Can You Do to Stop the Slaughter?

In communities around the world, people are rallying in support of the last wild buffalo by organizing peace marches, public presentations, letter writing campaigns, drum circles, concerts and various other forms of non-violent action to raise awareness of the Yellowstone buffalo slaughter. On April 4th 2002, in Washington, D.C. scores of supporters dressed in buffalo costumes led a stampede from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the U.S. Department of the Interior, receiving national media coverage. In Boulder, CO, this spring, buffalo supporters held a drum circle at the city park drawing attention to the terrible plight of these sacred animals. A Memorial Day concert last year in Northport, NY, raised $800 to support BFC operations. These are just a few examples of the many ways your community can help save the buffalo. Contact the BFC to receive a packet with suggestions for starting a Buffalo Support Group in your community. Be active, speak out, refute the lies, have fun, do your part to stop the slaughter!

Use your pen, phone, and computer to urge our public officials to stop killing the last wild buffalo. Letters to the editor of your local paper are a great way to let people know about this atrocity. Check out our web site for more information and speak out for the buffalo. It only takes a moment and makes a big difference!

MAIL - FAX-PHONE-EMAIL: The most effective way to let public officials know how you feel is to send letters, faxes, phone calls then emails, in that order.

Several supporters in a Congressional district can organize a visit to either a district office of a member of Congress or to their Washington, DC office. Call the Member's office to schedule a meeting.

To find out who your representative is: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
To find out who your senators are: http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm

For tips and samples on writing to members of Congress, see these web sites:

http://congress.org/
http://legislators.com/c-span/contact.html
http://www.cfsi.org/writingcongress.html

These people have the power to stop the slaughter. Contact them and demand an end to the irrational slaughter of the only continuously wild bison population in the United States:

Montana Governor Judy Martz
State Capitol, Helena, MT 59620
Phone (in Montana): 800-332-2272
Phone (out of state): 406-444-3111
FAX: 406-444-4151 ~ Email: jdelger@state.mt.us

Marc Bridges, Director,
Montana Dept. of Livestock
Box 202201, Helena, MT 59620
Phone (in Montana): 800-523-3162 [ext.3]
Phone (out of state): 406-444-9431
E-mail: kcooper@state.mt.us

Betsy Baumgart, Administrator,
Montana Promotion Division
1424 Ninth Avenue
P.O. Box 200533
Helena, MT 59620-0533
Phone (in Montana): 800-847-4868
Phone (out of state): 406-444-2654
FAX: 406-444-1800
E-mail: bbaumgart@state.mt.us

Dale Bosworth: Chief
United States Forest Service
4NW Yates Federal Building
201 14th Street SW at Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
Phone: 202-205-1661 ~ FAX: 202-205-1765
E-mail: dbosworth@fs.fed.us

Gale A. Norton, Secretary DOI,
United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240-0001
Phone: 202-208-7351 ~ FAX: 202-208-6956
E-mail: gale_norton@ios.doi.gov

Ann M. Veneman, Secretary,
United States Department of Agriculture
14th & Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
Phone: 202-720-3631 ~ FAX: 202-720-2166
E-mail: agsec@usda.gov

Fran Mainella, Director,
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-6843 ~ FAX: 202-208-7779
E-mail: fran_mainella@nps.gov

The Buffalo Field Campaign is a grassroots effort made up of volunteers who patrol the Yellowstone boundary to protect the Yellowstone herd and hold the management agencies accountable for their actions. We are the only group working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo. BFC volunteers defend the buffalo's traditional winter and spring habitat and advocate for their protection. Since 1997 we have hosted more than 1500 volunteers from across the country and around the world.

If you would like to contribute to our efforts there is much you can do. We receive the majority of our funding from individuals like you. Help us prepare for the coming winter with a tax deductible contribution. Every little bit helps. Send donations to the address below.

Please share this information with your family and friends, and urge them to sign on to our e-mail update list. The more people we can keep informed, the sooner the slaughter will stop.