Widespread concern over the fate of bison in and around Yellowstone National Park is the rationale for a key piece of federal legislation to curtail the harassment and slaughter of these animals.

Introduced by U.S. Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Charles Bass (R-NH) in November 2003, H.R. 3446, the Hinchey-Bass Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act, would prohibit state and federal agency officials from hazing, capturing, or killing Yellowstone bison until certain specific conditions have been met. By June 2004, the bill had gained the bipartisan support of key co-sponsors.

Descended from a remnant population of just 23 animals, the Yellowstone herd is a living link to the vast population of bison that once roamed the prairies before they were slaughtered by the millions. As the last continuously free-roaming herd of genetically pure wild bison, many consider them to be a national treasure.

When buffalo seek food outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park in the winter, Montana livestock officials and National Park Service (NPS) rangers send them to slaughter. In the spring of 2004, NPS and Montana officials killed 277 bison, including many young calves; thousands have been killed in recent decades. An April 2004 independent poll showed that 81% of Americans disapprove of the use of federal tax dollars to subsidize the killing of Yellowstone bison.

Under the Hinchey-Bass Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act, state and federal government agency officials are prohibited from hazing, capturing, or killing Yellowstone bison on federal lands (except when a person's life is in danger or property has been damaged) until the following conditions have been met:

1. Yellowstone bison must be allowed to range freely on federal lands to the immediate north and west of the park.
2. Management authority of bison within Yellowstone must be under the sole jurisdiction of the National Park Service.
3. A land exchange on the north side of the park must be finalized so that a small, private cattle herd no longer grazes near key wildlife habitat.
4. The bison capture facility within the park must be removed.
5. Agency officials must make reasonable efforts to allow Yellowstone bison, like other wildlife, to freely roam public lands through incentives and cooperative efforts with adjacent private landowners.

The plight of Yellowstone's bison received unprecedented attention from congressional leaders in 2003. In June, Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA), and Corrine Brown (D-FL) drafted a letter to the National Park Service (NPS), questioning the agency's bison management policy, which this spring killed hundreds of Yellowstone bison in the name of protecting domestic cattle from brucellosis. Thirty-six representatives signed their names to the Inslee-Brown letter.

In June 2004, Reps. Hinchey and Bass offered an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill to stop the government-funded killing of Yellowstone Park bison and prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to fund the annual killing of American buffalo by National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service officials. But the amendment was narrowly defeated in the House on June 17.

Unnecessary Slaughter

In March 2003, federal and Montana state officials rounded up 231 bison from Yellowstone and promptly sent them to slaughter. This spring they shot or slaughtered 277. It wasn't the first time they had killed members of one of America's last population of wild, free-roaming buffalo.

Since 1985, more than 3,500 of Yellowstone's wild bison have met the same fate at the hands of the NPS and other agencies. The slaughter is often preceded by lengthy hazing operations in which bison—including females with newborn calves—are chased for miles by helicopters, snowmobiles, and trucks, and driven to capture facilities. Two newborn calves died this spring simply due to hazing.

These operations have been carried out for years as a result of a cooperative agreement between the NPS, the Montana Department of Livestock (MDOL), and other state and federal agencies. The agreement allows agencies to round up bison who approach or cross the Yellowstone Park boundaries, test them for brucellosis (a disease that can cause spontaneous abortions in cattle), and send those bison who test positive to slaughter.

The policy is supposed to protect a handful of domestic cattle from the remote possibility that they could be infected with brucellosis. However, the disease has never been transmitted from wild, free-roaming bison to domestic cattle, most of whom are vaccinated against the disease anyway.

Conservation and animal protection organizations have argued for years that the capture-test-slaughter policy is unnecessary and can be replaced by common-sense, non-lethal solutions. However, these arguments have been ignored. In the past two years captured bison were not even tested for disease before being shipped to the slaughterhouse, where a handful were shot as they attempted to escape.

Among the animals killed in recent years were more than 70 ten-month old calves.

What You Can Do

Please contact your U.S. representative and ask him or her to support the Hinchey-Bass Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act. Let your legislators know that National Park Service rangers should be protecting these magnificent animals, rather than attempting to police a boundary that bison cannot recognize.

To identify your elected officials and learn how to contact them, call The HSUS at 202-955-3668, or visit www.congress.org. The capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 can connect you with your U.S. representative and your two U.S. senators.