DOI says Slaughter Bison

400 bison are being held in a trap along Yellowstone's Northern boundary. Wildlife advocates asked federal judge Lovell last week to stop the slaughter of the bison.

The Department of Interior is asking the federal judge not to intervene in the impending slaughter of these wild bison. DOI says the "massive wild animals" could cause property damage, compete with livestock for grazing and destroy crops.

There is no law that Congress can pass that will prevent the buffalo from disappearing before the march of civilization. There is no law which human hands can write, there is no law which a Congress of men can enact, that will stay the disappearance of these wild animals before civilization.

They eat the grass. They trample upon the plains upon which our settlers desire to herd their cattle and their sheep. They range over the very pastures where the settlers keep their herds of cattle. They destroy the pasture. They are as uncivilized as the Indian. 1874, U.S. Representative Conger

The civilization of the Indian is impossible while the buffalo remains upon the plains. I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from our western prairies, in its effect upon the Indians, regarding it as a means of hastening their sense of dependence upon the products of the soil and their own labors. Annual Report of the Department of Interior 1873

Bison Killed

2010-2011 Total: 131

2010-2011 Government Slaughter: 1
2010-2011 State & Treaty Hunts: 128
2010-2011 Quarantine: 0
2010-2011 Shot by Agents: 1
2010-2011 Highway Mortality: 1