http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
If you have been wanting to help protect the Yellowstone
buffalo, now is your chance. Representative Nick Rahall, the ranking
Democrat on the House Resources Committee, will offer an amendment to
the 2004 Interior Appropriations Bill making it illegal for the Park
Service to use funds to kill Yellowstone buffalo. The Bill will be voted
on next week.
The Rahall Amendment will add language to Interior
Appropriations Bill stating that "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 you may know, Yellowstone employees captured 231
buffalo inside the park during the first week of March, 2003, and
shipped them all to slaughter without testing a single one for
brucellosis, the supposed justification for the killing. This radical
action, which runs counter to the Park Service mission, caught
Representative Rahall's attention and he has been active in this issue
ever since.
During the past two winters park rangers have joined
forces with Montana Department of Livestock agents in and around
Yellowstone to slaughter buffalo. If the amendment passes the House and
Senate, Yellowstone employees will no longer be able to assist the
Montana Department of Livestock in the bloody work of slaughtering
Yellowstone buffalo.
We traveled to Washington DC in May and met with over
seventy Representatives and Senators, building a strong constituency for
the Yellowstone buffalo among our elected officials and helping to
elevate the issue to the national stage. We will be calling upon those
we met with but we need your help to make this effort a success.
TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE ABOUT THE RAHALL AMENDMENT
Yellowstone National Park provided sanctuary to the only
23 free-roaming buffalo that survived the mass slaughter of the 19th
century. Yet present-day park rangers are taking part in a slaughter
that threatens the very survival of their ancestors.
Call, fax, and email (in that order) your representative
and tell them about the Rahall Amendment. Yellowstone is supposed to be
a sanctuary for our nation's last remaining herd of genetically pure,
free-roaming bison, not a killing ground. Make a single phone call and
let your Representative know what you think.
To contact your Representative, please visit the
following web site:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Take action today. The future of free-roaming buffalo in
America depends on it!
For more information on the Yellowstone herd and the
efforts of the Buffalo Field Campaign, please read our newsletter. It is
fresh off the press and available online or in hard copy. Click on the
following link for an electronic version:
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/BFC_pdfs/BFC-News-2003.pdf
The Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in
the field every day to protect the Yellowstone bison, America's only
continuously wild herd. BFC volunteers defend the bison and their
habitat, and document every move made against them.
For the Buffalo,
Dan Brister
Project Coordinator
Buffalo Field Campaign
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
[email protected]
Go on to Tell Your Congressman to Vote for H.R. 1472
Return to 13 July 2003 Issue
Return to Newsletters
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