Buffalo Field
Campaign
January 2017
At a fundamental level, Montana and its cattle culture of control and intolerance are to blame.
Our combined efforts must focus on changing and challenging this status quo of the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Any action that does not fight this intolerance and excessive killing, or that fails to advocate for the buffalo's ability to live and move freely on the lands that are their birthright, poses a threat to the buffalo's long term survival and evolutionary potential.
Contact Montana Governor Steve Bullock and urge him to do everything in his power to repeal MCA 81-2-120 and endorse a new alternative that manages wild bison like wild elk in Montana, using the best available science that takes all changed circumstance into consideration.
Sign an online petition.
And/Or better yet, make direct contact:
Office of the Governor
Montana State Capitol Building
P.O. Box 200801
Helena, MT 59620-0801
phone (406) 444-3111
fax (406) 444 5529
[email protected]
online contact form:
http://governor.mt.gov/contact.aspx
The country’s last wild buffalo — America’s newly designated National
Mammal — are in grave danger. Yellowstone National Park has begun capture
for slaughter operations and plans to kill hundreds of wild Yellowstone
buffalo in the coming weeks, all to appease the interests of Montana’s
livestock lobby.
Capture operations at Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek bison trap began
Saturday, January 7, 2017. BFC field patrols in the Gardiner Basin report
that 84 wild buffalo are currently captive in the trap. Yellowstone and
other bison “managers” plan to slaughter — or domesticate if a controversial
quarantine plan is approved — upwards of 1300 of these sacred beings this
winter, all in an effort to appease the intolerance and unfounded fears of
the powerful Montana livestock industry.
Please call Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk right now (307-344-2002)
and tell him to release these buffalo and end further plans to capture the
country's National Mammal!
Watch
this BFC video to see what Yellowstone National Park is doing to our
national mammal, the sacred buffalo. All of what you see taking place is
paid for with your federal tax dollars.
In addition to capture, wild buffalo face other fatal dangers if they
migrate across Yellowstone’s boundary into Montana. Like other migratory
ungulates, buffalo must leave the park in order to survive the harsh
winters. Less than a mile from Yellowstone’s trap, just outside the
boundary, hunters await to make their kills. As buffalo migrate into lower
elevation habitat they are met with gunfire. Buffalo are never able to make
it far before being shot or spooked by hunters, which causes them to flee
back into Yellowstone and into the clutches of the trap.There is no safe
place for wild buffalo in the Gardiner Basin.
Capture operations are going to interfere significantly with state and
treaty hunting, which is currently in full swing. Wild buffalo are being
hunted along Yellowstone’s border by hunters who hold Montana tags, and by
four Native tribes — the Confederated Salish & Kootenai, Nez Perce, Shoshone
Bannock, and the Umatilla Confederacy — who hunt buffalo under treaty right.
Hunters are extremely upset that Yellowstone has opened its trap doors so
early, and most join BFC in being adamantly opposed to any capture of wild,
migratory buffalo. While BFC does not agree with the way buffalo hunting is
currently taking place, given the limited landscape, small buffalo
population, and firing line-style hunts, we do hope that we will strengthen
our common ground with hunters and be able to bolster solidarity efforts
aimed at ending the trapping of wild buffalo for good. Unfortunately, the
limited landscape where buffalo are allowed to roam facilitates highly
unethical hunting practices which not only manifest in the gunning down of
wild buffalo at Yellowstone’s borders, but forces the buffalo to flee back
into Yellowstone and become trapped by park officials. In the midst of such
management madness, wild buffalo have nowhere to roam in the Gardiner Basin
without being shot by hunters or captured for slaughter by Yellowstone.
Buffalo are bottled up in the Gardiner Basin with no escape due to livestock
politics. Hunters compete for the few buffalo on the landscape while also
racing to beat Yellowstone’s lethal capture operations at the trap. With
such insanity playing out on the land it's easy to lose sight of the fact
that Montana's livestock industry and the bison management plan that it has
forced on Yellowstone are the true forces responsible for the killing of
wild buffalo. Whether through hunt or so called government management
actions, the end result is the same: buffalo are reduced to meat, the land
is robbed of one of her best caretakers, and the livestock industry gloats
with satisfaction.
At a fundamental level, Montana and its cattle culture of control and
intolerance are to blame. Our combined efforts must focus on changing and
challenging this status quo of the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Any
action that does not fight this intolerance and excessive killing, or that
fails to advocate for the buffalo's ability to live and move freely on the
lands that are their birthright, poses a threat to the buffalo's long term
survival and evolutionary potential. Montana has played their cards in such
a way that they aren’t feeling much of the heat anymore; instead, all the
entities who should be the strongest allies for wild buffalo — Native
Peoples, subsistence hunters, Yellowstone National Park, and buffalo
advocates — are pointing fingers at each other. It’s the same old game of
divide and conquer. Let’s not be fooled. Let’s gather our strengths and
focus. Montana is our target and our aim must be true. To start, we must
repeal MCA 81-2-120 and remove the Montana Department of Livestock’s
authority over wild buffalo. We must also insist that wild buffalo are
respected like wild elk in Montana.
Thank you for everything you do for animals!
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