Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC).
July 8, 2004
----------------------------------
In This Issue:
* Update from the Field
* URGENT! Last Chance to Submit Comments on Buffalo Hunt - Due Friday!
* Vaccination Comments Due July 23
* Letters to the Editor: Yellowstone Shouldn't Kill our Wild Buffalo
* Last Words
----------------------------------
* Update from the Field
Our new web site
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
is off to a very strong start with hundreds of hits in the first few hours after
we announced its launch. As those of you who have been reading through
the information posted there know, the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL)
and the National Park Service (NPS) are the two agencies most responsible for
the unjustified slaughter of the Yellowstone buffalo. Since last November
these agencies have teamed up to slaughter 280 members of America's last genetically
pure, free-roaming herd.
While most of the killing and harassment takes place during the winter and early
spring, the DOL showed its eagerness to kill at any time of year by capturing
and slaughtering two bull buffalo two weeks ago, on June 21. The bulls
had been peacefully grazing in the Duck Creek area just a few hundred yards
west of the park boundary, and were causing no harm. While the DOL claims
the slaughter is necessary to prevent the transmission of brucellosis from wild
buffalo to cattle, no such transmission has ever been documented. Even if transmission
from buffalo to livestock were possible, it is a widely recognized fact that
bulls pose absolutely no risk. Yet the slaughter continues.
It will continue as long as our elected officials and appointed leaders think
it doesn't matter to "we the people" who put them in power. This is why
it is so crucial that you take the time to act for buffalo protection.
In addition to the ongoing slaughter, the DOL is busy preparing other nefarious
plans to kill and degrade the wild character of the Yellowstone buffalo.
Below you will find information and tips for writing comments on the DOL's plans
to inoculate buffalo with an ineffective vaccine designed for livestock. And
for those of you who have yet to submit comments on the DOL-supervised hunt,
we've pasted information below.
It is difficult to work so hard at something for so long with so few palpable
results. But we are making headway. 202 members of Congress recently
voted to protect the Yellowstone buffalo thanks to the phone calls and letters
of people like you from all across the county. Our resolve will not soften
until the Yellowstone buffalo are free to access their winter and spring range
outside the park. Please join us today in working for the protection of the
Yellowstone buffalo. We will not succeed without your help.
For the Buffalo,
Dan Brister
Buffalo Field Campaign
----------------------------------
* URGENT! Last Chance to Comment on Buffalo Hunt - Due Friday (July
9)
Friday, July 9th is the last day to send in comments opposing the buffalo "sport
hunt" proposed by MT Fish, Wildlife, and Parks! Please send your comments to
FWP today! Strongly urge them to choose the "No Action" alternative, and
use the suggested talking points below, along with your own personal viewpoints,
to demonstrate why a buffalo hunt is a bad idea that should be scrapped immediately.
If you live in Montana, please ask that the FWP conduct a public hearing in
your town or region. You can find more in-depth information about the hunt at
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legislative/huntcomments.html.
Send your comments by Friday, July 9th to:
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks
Attn: Bison Hunt Comments
1400 S. 19th Ave
Bozeman, MT 59718
Email: bisonhuntcomment@montana.edu
Suggested Talking Points (Please personalize!)
- Fish, Wildlife, and Parks should choose the "No Action" alternative.
- The opportunity for public participation has been inadequate. Extend the July
9th comment deadline and hold additional public hearings throughout the State.
- An environmental impact statement (EIS) is required under both Montana and
federal law if the action proposed will have "a significant impact on the human
environment".
- Before a hunt is considered, wild buffalo must be given the respect of being
considered a recovered resident native wildlife species in Montana, where they
are currently "managed" aggressively by the Department of Livestock as a "nuisance
animal in need of disease control."
- Tribal consultation should be sought and treaty rights upheld before any hunt
is considered.
- Shooting buffalo is like shooting a parked car or a couch. They do not
give "fair chase" like deer or elk. Don't forget the last time Montana
thought it was a good idea to "hunt" Yellowstone buffalo, the public outcry
caused a huge black eye for Montana.
- The plan does not consider the real possibility of a future for wild Montana
buffalo in which they are not killed in the gateway communities.
- FWP claims that hunters will be doing a service to the local communities by
removing "problem" buffalo that are causing damage to private property and threatening
human safety. Almost no property damage is caused by buffalo migrating into
Montana with the exception of damage caused when DOL agents haze buffalo through
people's fences on private property. - The preferred alternative sets a dangerous
precedent of putting the Department of Livestock in charge of the hunting of
a Montana big game species.
----------------------------------
* Tell the DOL to Vaccinate CATTLE and Leave the Buffalo Alone!
Comments needed by July 23!
On June 23, the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), announced that they intend
to add "vaccination" to their list of buffalo maltreatment. This would
mean that in addition to hazing, capture, testing, and a possible hunt, wild
buffalo that aren't shipped to slaughterhouses would be subjected to a brucellosis
vaccine developed for use in livestock. This vaccine, RB51, has been shown
to be ineffective in wild buffalo and cattle. Under the guise of "brucellosis
eradication," this vaccine plan has been coming from a few directions; APHIS,
NPS, and now the DOL. The studies conducted thus far conclude the same:
the vaccine doesn't work on wild buffalo. There are many reasons why vaccinating
wild buffalo is a very bad idea and should be strongly opposed, and we've listed
some of them below.
The plan is in its "scoping" stage - meaning this is just the beginning, and
a great time to nip it in the bud before it gets going, so please write your
comments now.
TAKE ACTION! Comments are being accepted through July 23. Using
the talking points and contact information below, in your own words tell the
Department of Livestock to stick to livestock! Tell them you are strongly
opposed to vaccinating wild buffalo, especially with a vaccine that doesn't
even work. Tell them they might want to find a vaccine that actually works
on cattle and use it on them, not buffalo. The DOL will hold a *PUBLIC MEETING*
in Helena, MT on July 15 at the Red Lion Colonial Inn, 2301 Colonial Drive.
Please attend if you can, and urge folks you know to do so as well! You
can get more information about this issue, and read the DOL's scoping announcement
by going to
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/dolvaccine.html
or by emailing bfc-media@wildrockies.org with questions.
Written comments may be mailed to:
Karen Cooper,
Information Officer
Montana Department of Livestock
PO Box 202001
Helena, MT 59620-2001
Fax to: 406-444-4316
Email to: livcomments@state.mt.us
Suggested talking Points (please personalize for effectiveness!)
1. The Yellowstone bison herd is a cultural and biological treasure, being
the only herd to continuously occupy its native range in the wild. Vaccines,
including RB51, are a tool designed for use in livestock, not wildlife.
Rather than focusing on Yellowstone's wild bison, efforts should be directed
at cattle herds. The process of subcutaneously injecting yearlings and
new-born calves with the RB51 strain of brucellosis--and the attendant stress
such procedures will have on the animals--will further erode the wildness of
the Yellowstone bison herd at a tremendous cost.
2. The RB51 vaccine is not effective in bison. According to a recent
peer-reviewed study*, "It was determined that RB51 did not confer significant
protection in the vaccinated animals. In terms of abortions and infections,
the RB51 bison vaccinated with three injections did not differ significantly
from the non-vaccinated bison..." Even APHIS (the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service), admit as much on page 9 of their EA when they wrote, "efficacy
[of RB51] in bison has not been definitively determined." ~ * Davis, D.S. and
Elzer, P.H., 2002, Brucella Vaccines in Wildlife, Veterinary Microbiology (90):
533-544.
3. The vaccination of buffalo outside the Park with an ineffective vaccine
will not eliminate brucellosis from the herd. Because the disease has
little effect on buffalo and because wild buffalo have never transmitted brucellosis
to livestock, efforts should be focused on cattle.
4. The EA does not discuss the efficacy or impacts of vaccinating newly
born bison within hours, days or weeks of birth. Neither does the EA address
the impact of capturing newborn calves, vaccinating them, and releasing them
without their mothers.
5. The EA fails to adequately address the proposal's impact on Native
Americans, who have an age-old and complex relationship with buffalo. Many Native
American individuals and organizations consider the buffalo as kin, and find
the repeated capturing, testing, vaccinating, and tagging of bison unacceptable.
Such intrusive measures affect the sacredness of buffalo by treating them as
livestock.
6. Yellowstone buffalo are not domestic animals. Because neither
APHIS nor Montana Department of Livestock personnel are trained in wildlife
management, they have no place meddling with the fate of the Yellowstone bison
herd and eroding their wildness through vaccination.
Thank you for helping our last wild buffalo. We are the only chance they
have. We cannot let them down!
----------------------------------
* Letters to the Editor
Park Service shouldn't kill our wild buffalo
On June 18, The [Billings] Gazette carried an article about a congressional
amendment vote entitled "House rejects proposal to ban bison hunting." For the
record, the bipartisan amendment had nothing to do with hunting. By amending
the House Interior appropriations act, it would have halted, for one year, funding
for the slaughter of Yellowstone buffalo by the National Park Service. Quoting
the exact wording of the amendment, "None of the funds made available by this
Act may be used to kill, or assist others in killing, any bison in the Yellowstone
National Park herd."
As the story indicated, the amendment only narrowly lost. This is because most
Americans, and many members of Congress, feel the Park Service shouldn't be
killing our nation's only truly wild, genetically pure buffalo. Rep. Rehberg
called this a Hollywood perspective, but speaking as a Montanan who has frequently
witnessed the irrational, draconian "management" of Yellowstone buffalo, I'd
suggest he take a closer look himself. With some 500 buffalo needlessly rounded
up and slaughtered over the past two winters by the agency that is supposed
to be their guardian, there is good reason ever more Americans are saying enough.
Incidentally, Rehberg made the claim during the House floor debate that "Last
year three buffalo were shot, because they needed to be." Our congressman would
have been more accurate if he'd mentioned that 277 were rounded up by the Park
Service, held in a cattle pen, and shipped off to slaughter. Rehberg, chastising
another congressman as out of touch, said he should "see what the over 400,000
head of bison are doing to their riparian area." In fact, there are about 4,000
buffalo in Yellowstone. If Rehberg is going to criticize others questioning
Park Service actions, it's only fair we call a spade a spade.
William C. Patric Bozeman
To read this letter online or to send your own letter to the Gazette, click
here:
----------------------------------
* Last Words
Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC)
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
buffalo@wildrockies.org