On Wednesday, October 2, three bull bison wandered less than one-half mile outside the safety of Yellowstone National Park and were promptly captured and sent to slaughter by the Montana Department of Livestock (MDOL). These deaths mark the beginning of what many fear may be the toughest winter for the bison since 1996–7, when 1,084 bison were killed.

Why Is the MDOL Killing Yellowstone's Bison?

When winter weather creates crusted snow and ice, forage becomes especially hard for bison to reach. Lured by shallower snow, a portion of the Yellowstone bison population follows traditional migration routes that happen to take them beyond the park's western and northern boundaries and into public and private land in Montana.

A handful of ranchers graze cattle on property adjacent to Yellowstone, purchasing permits for the use of public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. When cattle-grazing areas overlap with bison migration routes and calving areas, ranchers and the MDOL claim that cattle are at risk of contracting brucellosis, a disease that can cause spontaneous abortions in cattle.

While some of Yellowstone's bison have tested positive for antibodies to brucellosis, a positive test result indicates only that the animal has been exposed to the disease and has developed antibodies. In many cases, a positive test result for brucellosis means that the animal has developed resistance to the disease. In other words, bison who test "positive" are not necessarily infected with the disease or capable of transmitting it to other bison or cattle. In fact, the bison's ability to transmit brucellosis to cattle is cast into doubt by the fact that there has never been a documented case of a wild, free-roaming bison infecting domestic cattle with the disease.

The already negligible risk of disease transmission is further reduced by several factors:

• Virtually all cattle in the Yellowstone area have already been vaccinated against brucellosis.
• Cattle and bison usually do not occupy the same land at the same time. (The land favored by bison in the winter is used by cattle in the summer.)
• Brucellosis is thought to be transmitted primarily, if not solely, via fluids and tissues associated with either a live birth or an aborted fetus. So males, calves, and female bison who are not pregnant pose almost no threat, even if they did come into contact with domestic cattle.

Capture, Hazing, and Slaughter

Despite a lack of scientific evidence to support its concerns, the MDOL hazes bison back into Yellowstone Park using a variety of techniques and equipment, including ATVs, snowmobiles, guns, and helicopters. These hazing practices are stressful for the bison; they also may disrupt the nesting of threatened species of eagles, whose Endangered Species Act status should protect them from such damaging interference.

Under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, the MDOL is also allowed to capture bison who leave the park and test them for antibodies to brucellosis. Although transmission of the disease, as mentioned above, is thought to occur primarily when an infected female gives birth or aborts, all bison who test positive are sent to slaughter, even bulls. Bison who cannot be hazed back into the park or captured are sometimes shot.

Since the mid-1980s, more than 3,000 wild Yellowstone bison have been sent to slaughter or shot in the field under an interim management plan among the cooperating federal and state agencies. This plan was approved in December 2000, despite massive public opposition to the unnecessary and inhumane destruction of wildlife.

In the spring of 2002, the Yellowstone bison population exceeded the arbitrary cap of 3,000 set by the management plan; this allowed the MDOL to slaughter more than 100 bison without even testing them first. These slaughters indicate, at the very least, that the MDOL is more interested in killing bison than in protecting cattle against brucellosis. The spring killing campaign also doesn't bode well for Yellowstone's bison population, which now stands at 4,000—at least 1,000 animals over the so-called cap.

America's Last Wild Bison

The bison population of Yellowstone National Park is one of the last remaining populations in the U.S. that does not contain bison-domestic cattle hybrids. All free-roaming bison herds on state lands contain hybrids, and only a portion of the bison herds on federal land are free of hybrids. Almost all privately owned bison herds in the United States, totaling approximately 275,000 bison, contain bison-cattle hybrids. Nevertheless, the MDOL and cooperating state and federal agencies are plowing ahead into another winter of hazing and slaughtering these symbols of the American West.

What You Can Do

Please contact the officials listed below. Ask them to stop allowing the MDOL to kill bison who leave the safety of Yellowstone National Park. These animals pose essentially no risk to the few cattle grazing near the park, most of whom are already vaccinated against brucellosis.

Ms. Ann Veneman, Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington, D.C. 20250
agsec@usda.gov

Ms. Suzanne Lewis, Superintendent
Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone, WY 82190
307-344-2002
Fax: 307-344-2005 yell_superintendent@nps.gov

Ms. Fran Mainella, Director
National Park Service
1849 C St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20240
202-208-6843