I will never forget the experience I had last winter in
Yellowstone National Park, when a wolf raced across the trail a few
yards in front of me. As a National Park Ranger, committed to preserving
our national treasures and resources, unimpaired (so we like to say),
for the enjoyment by future generations, if I could share one experience
and make it available for our children's children's children....it would
be my experience of standing in the snow with the bison and the elk and
the wolves of Yellowstone.
It is just a shame that I had to be there not as a Park
Ranger, but as a member of an activist group trying to stop the
slaughter of the buffalo of that park. One hundred bison were killed
last winter to protect the profits of eight cattle ranchers who hold
grazing permits to federal Forest Service land (that really means our
land) just outside Yellowstone Park. The government of Montana insists
that the bison must be killed to prevent the spread of the disease
brucellosis to the cattle.
The current herd is close to two thousand in number.
Many people were outraged during the winter of 1997/98 when one thousand
buffalo were shot in the fields or captured and taken to
slaughterhouses. At that time a thousand was about 1/3 of this last free
roaming bison herd in the US.
Do numbers matter? Does it matter to the US public only
when this many are slaughtered? Is one-twentieth of the herd any more
acceptable? Does it matter that the state of Montana has been conducting
this annual slaughter for 15 years now? How many killed bison will the
public find acceptable this winter?
Why do cattle slavers have such a hold on the federal
government and the American people? Why haven't we been able to push
legislation through Congress to reform cattle grazing laws on our public
lands?
How many people even know that Montana Governor Marc
Racicot, the man responsible for the slaughter, could be the next
Secretary of the Interior, the agency in charge of the National Park
Service, the agency whose symbol is the bison?
To learn more and to stay updated on the bison situation
go to.... http://www.poky.srv.net/~jjmrm/bison/index.htm Yellowstone
bison slaughter page
And please remember the activists in the field who are
trying to protect the bison. They could use some coffee, some chocolate
soymilk mix, some trail mix, some supportive letters and grocery money.
Buffalo Field Campaign
The Wolf, Man's worst enemy, outcast brother of man's
best friend
After centuries of extermination, things turned around
for the wolf in 1976 when they were declared one of the first of the
endangered species. Wolf reintroduction programs in Yellowstone and in
the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico/Arizona have been successful, in spite
of the legal and illegal actions of cattle and sheep slavers who have
shot and killed wolves and who have instigated lawsuits to protect the
profits they make from the exploitation of animals.
On July 29th, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Denver, Colorado, began hearing the arguments in the appeal of the Farm
Bureau vs. the wolves of Yellowstone trial. A panel of three judges will
determine whether to let stand or reverse the 1997 decision by a lower
court which found in favor of the American Farm Bureau and ruled that
the wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park would have to be
removed. "Removed" translates into "killed" from the bureaucratese. A
decision could still be months away in the appeal.
But good news came last month for the Mexican wolves
reintroduced in the Southwest. A November federal court decision
dismissed an attempt by the New Mexico Cattlegrowers Association to end
the Mexican wolf reintroduction program in the Gila Wilderness area of
New Mexico and Arizona. Defenders of Wildlife has called returning the
Mexican wolf to its former range in the Southwest "the single most
important wolf conservation initiative of the decade."
To compensate livestock owners for any livestock lost to
wolves, the Defenders of Wildlife has a Wolf Compensation Trust Fund.
This fund was initiated so that cattle and sheep ranchers would find the
wolf reintroduction program more palatable. If you can't make enough
money as an animal slaver without price supports and bailouts from the
government, you can always turn to animal protection groups for a
handout.
For more news on wolves... http://www.yellowstone-natl-park.com/wolfnews.htm
The Total Yellowstone Wolf News Page
