500 Yellowstone bison captured and sent to slaughter

[montana500]

www.wilderness-sportsman.com


"The National Park Service has captured more than 500 bison and plans to ship most of them to slaughter, hauling them as far as Nampa, Idaho, a journey of more than 500 miles."

[Che_Nuevara]

1. Link to the actual article here:

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2006/01/18/news/01bison.txt

[formercia]

2. Yellowstone National Park as a Zoo

It may not have bars but it is in effect, a zoo. Bison are migratory animals and when too many inhabit a range, they will migrate to find better pastures. Bison carry Anthrax and other pathogens that are fatal to domestic livestock. It's a sad ending to a good idea gone bad.

[montana500]

4. The problem I have

...is that alot of these animals are found on public land outside the park. Also, almost all of the round up and slaughter activity occurs in the winter time.

As for the zoo comments I'm not sure they apply. All other animal life can freely wander back and forth in the 8 million acre Yellowstone ecosystem (the park is around 2.2 million acres). The Bison are the only animal prohibited from leaving the park.

[formercia]

5. They are prohibited from leaving the park because

they cannot coexist with domestic livestock. Bison have endemic pathogens that do not harm them but will kill livestock.

[montana500]

6. then get the livestock off of public lands....

Also, when was the last case of bison transmitting a deadly disease to livestock?

I can see moving them once they are on private property. But public land such as national forests that adjoin Yellowstone National Park?

[formercia]

8. Now there's the rub

ranchers are making too much money from leasing federal lands for livestock grazing to let that happen.

[HamdenRice]

10. Actually, it's the other way around ...

I heard a report on radio -- I think it was Pacifica -- that reported that this explanation is a distortion.

Ranchers claim that bison give cattle brucellosis (not anthrax). In fact, brucellosis is a disease of domestic cattle that was first transmitted to bison around 1917, not the other way around. There has never been a documented case of bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle.

Brucellosis is difficult to transmit. It is transmitted through mother's milk or the byproducts of birth or aborted fetuses.

As one scientific report stated:

"The threat of brucellosis spreading from Yellowstone wildlife to cattle is too small to measure, but the risk too great to ignore. Because bison tissue cultures are difficult to obtain and blood tests are imprecise, infection rates are poorly known. For now, animals testing positive in blood tests for antibodies to brucellosis should be assumed to be carrying the disease. Transmission rates also are unclear, because little controlled research has been done on transmission in wild, free-roaming animals."

Also domestic cattle are already vaccinated against brucellosis, so again the danger is very small.

This is a fight over grass on federal land -- who gets to eat it, wild animals or domestic cattle. The disease issue is a red herring promoted by greedy cattle ranchers who are trying to privatize public land.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/98legacy/01_16_98a.html

[montana500]

11. great post Hamden.

Thx for thew very interesting info.

[formercia]

12. My bad

spreading administration propaganda. Thank you for the clarification.

The Canadian herds of Bison do carry Anthrax, at least that's what has been reported.

This is a good point of discussion.

[HamdenRice]

13. It's rancher propoganda as much as govt propoganda

and I didn't know about Canada's antrax problem. I guess it was those pesky bison who send those letters to Sen. Daschle after 9/11!

[formercia]

15. I just had this visual of Karl Rove

chasing bison trying to collect some hoof scrapings..

[SpiralHawk]

3. The rhythym of the bison hooves, the elders say, keeps

the ground stable and the forces in check at the Yellowstone Super Volcano. So it has been told to me.

[Skink]

7. Probably on land we are thinking of selling

[formercia]

9. The only sound the GOP hears is the sound of the cash register.

and the rustle of high denomination currency.

[OneBlueSky]

14. that's the American Way . . . whenever there's a problem . . .

kill something or someone . . .