Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

JACKSON, WY - The Fund for Animals, a national animal protection organization that has worked for the protection of bison for more than a decade, expressed its strong condemnation of the sport hunting of bison that resumed in Jackson Hole this past week. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department last week issued four permits for the sport hunting of bison on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and on Saturday two bull bison were killed on the east side of Jackson Hole.

A federal bison management plan to hunt bison on the Bridger-Teton National Forest and the National Elk Refuge has been blocked since October 1998, when The Fund for Animals and other groups won a federal court injunction. The court ruled that the federal agencies had not adequately analyzed the environmental effects of the elk and bison supplemental feeding programs as part of the bison management plan, and therefore prohibited the agencies "from killing or allowing the destruction of bison" until they have conducted an adequate Environmental Analysis or Environmental Impact Statement.

Said Andrea Lococo, the Jackson-based Rocky Mountain Coordinator for The Fund for Animals, "Everyone agrees that the hunting of Jackson Hole bison is scientifically reckless, because the proper environmental studies, which a federal court deemed necessary, have not been completed. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has elected to orchestrate its own bison hunt before the environmental review, and has simply decided to play Russian Roulette with our bison herd."

The Fund also criticized Wyoming hunters for supporting an especially egregious and unsporting hunt of animals who have virtually no fear of people. The Wyoming Wildlife Federation, which applauded the killing this week, is in clear contradiction with its own "ethics resolution" opposing "unethical" and "unsportsmanlike" hunting practices "which cast sportsmen and sportswomen in a negative light."

Said Michael Markarian, Executive Vice President of The Fund for Animals, "The Jackson Hole bison are accustomed to the click of a camera, not the crack of a rifle. Shooting these docile creatures is about as sporting as shooting a parked car. With more than 2,000 Wyoming hunters waiting for a chance to win the lottery to shoot bison, it is all but proof that Wyoming hunters are among the most unethical and unsporting in the nation."