NOUVELLES DES BISONS DE YELLOWSTONE

 



SOURCE ET INFOS SUPPLEMENTAIRES
146 BISONS EN QUARANTAINE SERONT PROBABLEMENT TRANSFERES 
 UNE DOMESTICATION  SERA INEVITABLE QUI MALHEUREUSEMENT  DETRUIRA LEUR INTEGRITE SAUVAGE ET LEUR POUVOIR MIGRATOIRE.


Despite a still-open public comment period on an Environmental Assessment to determine the fate of 146 buffalo held under quarantine on Ted Turner's Green Ranch, it appears that Montana's Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission has already made the decision to transfer the buffalo - originating from the wild herds of Yellowstone - to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Additionally, per the highly contentious agreement Montana made with Turner in 2010 for housing these buffalo -- an agreement legally challenged by BFC and other wild bison advocates -- Turner will get to keep 75% of their offspring, meaning that approximately 200 of once public wild buffalo will become Turner's private, domestic livestock in perpetuity.

The 146 buffalo that will be transferred to the Fort Peck Reservation will be used to assist other tribes with the provision of buffalo, and the Fort Peck Tribe's business herd. The buffalo will live on "range units," various pastures with electric boundary fences, that total 10,778 acres. These buffalo will be culled annually and be ear tagged. While their genetics may be preserved, their wild integrity and migratory nature is eroded.

Buffalo Field Campaign has always opposed the quarantine of wild bison as it is exclusively suited for domestic animals and is not consistent with accepted wildlife conservation practices. Quarantine just means more buffalo behind fences. It is important to remember that the eldest members of these quarantined buffalo, now ten years old, were captured from the wild along with with their families inside Yellowstone National Park when they were just babies. The calves were sent to quarantine while the rest of their families were sent to slaughter. BFC advocates for expanded habitat and migration corridors -- never quarantine --and if extensions of habitat are consistent with migratory patterns, it is highly possible for buffalo to naturally move to areas currently considered for the placement of quarantined buffalo.

The bison quarantine debacle is another sorry example of how Montana has made no demonstrable commitment to manage buffalo as a wildlife species in the state, and they have clearly shown that they have no idea what it means to have a public trust responsibility to buffalo. All Americans, and Montanans in particular, should apply pressure on Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and Montana Governor Steve Bullock asking them when Montana will begin to live up to its responsibility to protect buffalo as a native, migratory wildlife species in the state.