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Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, Mt. 59758
Phone (406) 646-0070 Fax (406) 646-0071 E-mail buffalo@wildrockies.org.
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 3, 2002
Contacts: Peter Leusch, Dan Brister, Mike Mease (406) 646-0070

Lockdown Temporarily Halts Bison Capture at Horse Butte
West Yellowstone, MT: Gallatin County resident Joe Strusz locked himself to the Horse Butte bison capture facility this morning, halting an operation to capture twenty bison that migrated to the butte two days ago. Strusz secured his arms to the gate of the facility with chains inside of a steal pipe at 8 AM, just as the capture operation was beginning.

According to Strusz, "This capture facility is a blight on our National Forests. I'll unlock when Gallatin National Forest takes the facility down and allows bison to use public lands. Bison should be accorded all the rights of wildlife and left undisturbed to graze where they see fit."

Later in the morning, MDOL agents removed Strusz from the facility after they disassembled parts of the corral with a crane truck. He was arrested and charged with trespassing and obstruction. When the facility was put back together the capture operation continued with nine agents on snowmobiles hazing the bison into the trap. The bison evaded the snowmobiles for about an hour, at one point being pushed through a barbed wire fence before being captured.

Government agencies including the Montana Department of Livestock (MDOL), Gallatin National Forest, National Park Service, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have killed over 3,200 Yellowstone bison since 1985. The slaughter is based on the unsubstantiated fear that bison will transmit brucellosis to cattle. There has never been a documented case of transmission from bison to cattle in a natural setting.

Strusz said of the slaughter, "Bison and livestock have co-mingled in Grand Teton National Park for more than 45 years without a single case of transmission. If the government really believes there is a risk, they should manage the cattle, not slaughter the bison."

In fact, there are no cattle in the area until June 15th, well after Yellowstone bison traditionally return to the park. Brucellosis bacteria have been shown to live for only a matter of days when exposed to the elements. Any risk of transmission could be eliminated by keeping a time and space separation between the cattle and bison.

Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) spokesperson Peter Leusch stated, "Instead of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars a year to slaughter bison, managers should focus on the cattle. If there truly is a risk of transmission, the Forest Service should cancel the grazing allotments surrounding Yellowstone."

BFC volunteers documented grizzly bear tracks on Horse Butte this morning. In addition, bald eagles were seen in the air, with a protected nest located about a quarter mile north of the bison capture facility. Gallatin National Forest has failed to consider the impacts that bison management activities have on other wildlife that rely on Horse Butte.

Leusch said, "These operations continue to threaten endangered species like grizzly bears and bald eagles as well as elk, moose, trumpeter swans and a host of other wildlife. Not only are bison being needlessly slaughtered, but the whole west side of the ecosystem is also threatened. This is simply a bureaucratic boondoggle where wildlife, the American people, and the local economy lose out to the unfounded fears of the livestock industry."
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On Sunday morning, February 24, the Department of Livestock and the federal agencies came out in force, firing explosive cracker rounds, throwing sticks, rocks, and snowballs to haze this herd more than five miles to the buffalo trap on Horse Butte. BFC volunteers who were attempting to videotape the operation were restricted from areas where tourists on snowmobiles were allowed to be and threatened with arrest.

After they were captured three of the moms and two young bulls were loaded onto a cattle trailer and slaughtered. Three orphaned yearling calves and a three-year-old pregnant buffalo were released near the spot of their capture. The pregnant cow was fitted with a radio collar. This is the first time this winter the DOL came out on a
weekend and it shows how systematically they are going about their work of eradicating buffalo from Montana. Releasing yearling calves after killing their mothers seems a sure way to insure their death.  Young buffalo rely on their familial herds to break trails through the deep snow and to help them push snow aside to find grass.

The happy side (if there is one) to this story occurred today when these four shaken animals walked down off Horse Butte and back to Yellowstone, where they joined a different mixed herd of seven buffalo that is grazing on the Madison River less than two miles inside the boundary. Where yesterday there was doubt about whether the yearlings could survive today there is relief that they have the safety and protection of another herd and hope that they will survive until spring. But the uneasiness remains. The question is not if, but when will this herd leave the park and find itself the victim of another DOL hazing and capture operation.

Montana DOL and Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Violate Gallatin Forest
Plan in Capture of 9 Bison near Yellowstone

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2002
Contacts: Dan Brister, Pete Leusch (406) 646-0070

West Yellowstone, MT: Nine bison, including pregnant cows and yearling calves, were hazed five miles through more than three feet of snow and captured in the Department of Livestock's (DOL) Horse Butte bison trap on Sunday. The DOL didn't try to haze the small herd, which had only been in Montana for two days, back to the park.  The bison were grazing along the Madison River a few hundred yards outside the west boundary of Yellowstone in the Gallatin National Forest.

Agents from the DOL and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks violated the Gallatin Forest Plan by driving snowmobiles off designated trails along the Madison River. According to the Forest Plan's provisions for protecting fish and game, "Motorized vehicle use will not be permitted during the period December 1 through May 1, except on designated routes" (Gallatin National Forest Forest Plan,
III-44). The Park Service, the Forest Service, Gallatin County Sheriff's Department, and the MT Highway Patrol also assisted with the operation.

"These agencies are violating the laws they are supposed to uphold, destroying our wildlife, and spending 40 million of our tax dollars in the process," said BFC spokesperson Dan Brister. "Every time an agent drives his snowmobile through a riparian area, a thousand tourists are tempted to follow in his tracks," said Brister.

Firing cracker-rounds and throwing sticks and snowballs at the bison to make them move, the agents chased the animals for more than three hours. Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) journalists were restricted from areas where they were documenting the operation and threatened with arrest while tourists on snowmobiles were permitted within the same areas.

Because the brucellosis test used by the DOL to determine whether to slaughter or release captured animals detects antibodies rather than infection, the majority of the bison that test "positive" and are killed don't actually carry the disease. Eighty percent of bison testing positive for exposure prior to slaughter test negative according to the more accurate culture test conducted after slaughter.

There has never been a documented transmission of brucellosis from wild bison to livestock. In its 1998 study, Brucellosis in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the National Academy of Sciences concluded, "The current risk of transmission from YNP bison to cattle is low."

Even if buffalo were capable of spreading brucellosis, the absence of cattle between mid-October and mid-June make such a transmission impossible. The cattle that stock the summer grazing allotments on Horse Butte are shipped in from Idaho. Montana is killing America's last wild buffalo to protect a few Idaho cattle.

The Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field everyday to stop the bison slaughter. Volunteers defend the buffalo on their native range and advocate for their protection.             Video and Still Photos are Available on Request.
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