Last Day to Comment for Bison!!

Draft Joint Environmental Assessment Adaptive Management Adjustments to the Interagency Bison Management Plan.

BFC file photo

Montana's proposed action would cause further harm to a majority of wild buffalo migrating in the Gardiner Basin. Wild bison would be harassed in winter range necessary for their survival, captured, tagged, crowded and confined into traps for extended periods - including during calving - fed hay in feedlot conditions worse than Wyoming's harmful elk feed grounds, vaccinated with a livestock vaccine that was never developed nor licensed for use in wild buffalo. Montana falsely claims that their proposed objective is to "maintain a wild, free-ranging population of bison." Their words and proposed action are incongruent. The government's language is intended to indoctrinate the public into accepting a gross contradiction of reality.
 

The environmentally preferred alternative is absent from this proposal. While it exists, it has been blatantly ignored by the government since 2000. This sensible alternative is overwhelmingly supported by the public and calls for managing wild buffalo as valued native wildlife, conservation of historic migration corridors, additional habitat acquisitions, and managing livestock where wildlife/livestock conflicts exist. This alternative has been ignored or rejected by Montana and other government agencies involved in the highly controversial Interagency Bison Management Plan since 2000, but it should be brought to the forefront and adopted immediately. (quoted from BFC website)

Click Here To Send Your Comments TODAY and Tell Montana Hay Bales Are Not Habitat!

Support HR 3432!

On Wednesday, November 16, H.R. 3432, the Rural Economic Vitalization Act (REVA), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Adam Smith (D-WA-9th) and six original cosponsors.

This bill would allow federal grazing permittees to voluntarily relinquish their grazing permits back to the managing federal agency in exchange for compensation paid by a third party.

Grazing permit retirement is a voluntary, non-regulatory, market-based solution to public lands grazing conflicts.  Permittees determine if and when they want to retire their grazing permits. Permittees and third parties separately agree how much a permittee will be paid for relinquishing their permit. And federal agencies facilitate the transaction by immediately retiring grazing permits received from a permittee. The Rural Economic Vitalization Act caps the total number of grazing permits that may be retired each year at 100.

Send a letter urging your House Representative to cosponsor this bill!
Click here to go to letter

Where Buffalo Can Never Roam

Earlier this week Gov. B.S. declared and executive order prohibiting "importation of Yellowstone bison into areas of Montana that are outside of the designated surveillance area as designated by the Department of Livestock through administrative rule for a period of 90 days. "

No coincidence that a few days later SB 144 passed 31-19. The sponsor of the bill, Senator John Brendon, is receiving over $33,000/year in farm subsidies.

Here's some of what SB 144 says:

Section 1
  "87-1-216.  Wild buffalo or bison as species in need of management -- policy -- department duties. (1) The legislature finds that significant potential exists for the spread of contagious disease to persons or livestock in Montana and for damage to persons and property by wild buffalo or bison. It is the purpose of this section:

     (a)  to designate publicly owned wild buffalo or bison originating from Yellowstone national park as a species requiring disease control;

     (b)  to designate other wild buffalo or bison as a species in need of management;

 

(5) The department may not:

     (a) relocate wild buffalo or bison within the state unless the wild buffalo or bison are relocated to the national bison range at Moiese; or

     (b) allow or authorize any person to allow bison to roam free anywhere in this state.

What's wrong with putting America's Last Genetically Pure Bison on the National Bison Range?
Only that the Bison Range is Beefalo. Putting YNP bison here would be an end to their pure genetics.

525 Bison Going to SLAUGHTER

Monday, Feb. 14, 2011. National Parks Service horseback rider hazes bison to move them from one location to another just inside Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner, Mont.

An Unhappy Valentine's Day by Judge Lovell included putting down the injunction filed by environmentalists to stop the unnecessary slaughter of America's last genetically pure, wild, bison.  He wrote that while the slaughter of bison may be "distasteful," it is a "time-honored" method of controlling a disease carried by many of the animals.  ("distasteful"="time-honored") Montana only cares about tradition.

Excellent Letter to Colin Campbell

Here is a comment I received to a previous post. There was no attached map.

My letter to Colin and the Park Service;

Sir;

First lets start with supposedly 3,900 Bison in the park(a number that is WAY too high, with all the hunter kills, over 100, still about a month of hunt left, not to mention the winter kills happening daily) "They" say 50% of Bison are infected or test positive. How can they say that when the only Bison they have tested in the past many years, are the ones they just did at Stephens creek and only 1/3 tested positive? With their numbers, it comes to less than 2,000 being positive (again their numbers are way off the mark) Then we look at the elk and they are supposed to be 5% positive. At over 30,000 elk in and out of the Park year around, not to mention the tens of thousands in the Madison Valley, even at 5% positive, you have way more infected animals traipsing farther than Bison, and mingling with livestock, (Bison rarely if ever mingle). It has been proven Bison are NOT the culprit for the transmissions, yet the focus is still all on the Bison.
 
It's known these animals are 'genetically' pure,(THREE different, distinct, genetically pure herds in Yellowstone Park) yet the powers that be want to contaminate them with vaccines, and domestication. Heck they can't manage the domesticated cattle, how in the world do they think they can manage wild animals? 

In the mean time there is a lot of money being thrown down the chute, because the Livestock industry is too embarrassed to admit Brucellosis is NOT a threat to humans. They want that budget, so they can continue wasting the money on hazing Bison where there are no cattle ever(Horse Butte Peninsula), they capture the bison before they leave the Park so the hunters holding tags are left out in the cold. This is like a Ponzi scheme, and we the taxpayer are losing our you-know-what.

In February of 2009 the Medical world released the fact that Brucellosis is EASILY curable in humans.
These Bison belong to every citizen of the United States of America, NOT the Department of Livestock nor Yellowstone National Park I have a piece of each and every Bison out there, and you are taking it away from ME.
Why do the Elk get a reprieve and the Bison don't?

When will you National Park Service People start protecting our animals and parks for future generations, instead of destroying them?

I have attached a map showing the Horse Butte Peninsula, so you can see the peninsula is just an extension of the Park, and Bison can contaminate absolutely no cattle on that Peninsula.

Ann 

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

Department of Interior Alternate Logo

Unfortunately this represents the truth.

Temporary Halt to Slaughter

Bison slaughter on hold as park reviews lawsuit

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Matthew Brown, Associated Press – 

BILLINGS, Mont. –

Officials halted plans Friday to ship bison to slaughter from Yellowstone National Park after saying they first had to review a court challenge filed by wildlife advocates. Almost 400 of the animals were being held in corrals inside the park for testing to see if they have been exposed to the disease brucellosis.

Colin Campbell STOP the SLAUGHTER!

Here's a letter my mother wrote to the acting superintendent of Yellowstone National Park.

Stop wasting taxpayers hard earned money abusing and killing members of the Yellowstone Bison Herd.  The brucellosis excuse is a LIE to U.S. taxpayers.  You already know that there has not been even one documented case of genetically pure, wild bison giving this disease back to the cattle who brought it here to begin with.  Cattle imported from Europe by our European immigrant ancestors.

You are perpetuating the Dept. of Interior's racist war from the 1800's, when the complaint was that Indians and Buffalo are taking grassland away from cattle.  Stop carrying on in the dysfunctions of your predecessors.

Let the Buffalo Roam!

                    Take Action!

Please take a moment right now and urge Yellowstone's Acting Superintendent Colin Campbell and your US Senators and Representative to stop the slaughter of the Yellowstone bison, America's only continuously wild population. 

Colin Campbell, Yellowstone National Park
PHONE: 307-344-2003
EMAIL: colin_campbell@nps.gov

Even More Bison Bills!

Here's this week's round up.

SB 174 SENATE Fish and Game Committee Tuesday, February 1, Room 422, 3 PM
Primary sponsor is Senator Gene Vuckovich is a Democrat from Anaconda: mt.sd43@gmail.com. Prohibit spending Montana tax dollars "to relocate or transplant wild buffalo or bison" on Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area, near Avon, west of Helena. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks: "The primary goal of Montana's Wildlife Management Areas is to maintain vital wildlife habitat for the protection of species and the enjoyment of the public." All too often cattle are grazed on these habitats purchased by all Montanans for their wildlife habitat values.

SB 184 SENATE Fish and Game Committee Tuesday, February 1, Room 422, 3 PM
Primary sponsor is Senator Kendall Van Dyk a Democrat from Billings: kvandyk@mt.gov. Changes current law to permit "the use of bows and arrows" to hunt wild buffalo in Montana.

HB 214 HOUSE Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee Tuesday, February 1, Room 152, 3 PM
Primary sponsor is Rep. Bill Harris is a Republican from Mosby: bharris@midrivers.com. Legally reclassifies all wild buffalo or bison in the state not in captivity, and not owned by a person as livestock. "Shall" meaning requires the Dept. of Livestock inspectors to capture, quarantine, test, slaughter, take by special hunt, or transfer to Tribes said "estrayed" buffalo "in a manner that does not jeopardize compliance with a state-administered or federally administered livestock disease control program." Based on previous statements by Montana's state veterinarian, this latter statement means that Tribes would only be eligible to take neutered or spayed buffalo. Two provisions of honorable mention in HB 214 would repeal 81-2-120 (Management of wild buffalo for disease control giving Montana Dept. of Livestock authority for all migratory populations) and 87-1-216 (Montana's hunt of wild buffalo or bison for disease control). HB 214 also repeals 81-2-121 the taking of public buffalo on private property, and the prohibition on intentional feeding "game animals in a manner that results in artificial concentration of game animals that may potentially contribute to the transmission of disease." The Dept. of Livestock is exempt from this prohibition on feeding wildlife.

If you can't attend these critical hearings, please call and contact Montana legislators via this number: (406) 444-4800

All committee member emails are located at the bottom of this page:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legislative/montanalegislature2011.html

SB 148 DPHHS Bison Management

I attended the Senate Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Committee meeting on SB 148 earlier this week. It was 1hr of bison and landowner bashing. I sat to the left and behind the comment podium. The sponsor of the bill, Art Wittich, says there are too many buffalo and that if DOL was doing it's job of managing wild buffalo before the animal comes onto private land, there wouldn't be issues with landowners.

One interesting thing about SB 148 is the following quote from the bill Sec.1 Subsection (2)(c)

The department is not required to notify or obtain the landowner's permission to enter the property prior to conducting bison control activities if the department, the department of public health and human services, and the department of fish, wildlife, and parks all find that entry onto the landowner's property without notice or permission is necessary to protect the public health and safety.

In regards to seeking permission from both FWP and DPHHS, Christian MacKay had the following arrogant statement against the state of Montana, "We don't need the state or federal, especially federal offices looking over our shoulder [making] sure we are doing a good job."
I began laughing at this hole he dug.

Brucellosis-the B word- came up alot from a representative from Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA) and Christian MacKay executive officer of the MDOL. MSGA made a statement that goes beyond the superficial. "[we] need to keep bison and cattle separate in time and space." When he said this a thought flowed into my head that he is not referring to fences, but literally 'time' and 'space.' Cattle and bison cannot be in this country at the same time. The bison need to go.

A friend of mine gave a excellent presentation on the different strains of brucellosis, livestock who carry it and the threat to humans. Here it is:

Sec. 1 81-2-120 Management of wild buffalo or bison for disease control. Whenever a publicly owned wild buffalo or bison from a herd that is infected with a dangerous disease, etc... action (d) states that disease is brucellosis.

Brucellosis is passed through birthing material, therefore there should be an amendement to not kill the bulls or females before or after breeding age. Brucellosis causes a cow to abort it's first fetus, so areas without cattle should be exempt. A human contracts the disease by either allowing the bacteria to enter a cut, breathing in the bacteria or drinking unpasteurized milk. If a landowner or anyone on their land comes that close to the buffalo, that person becomes the Public Health Issue.

B Suis is most often found in hogs and is more deadly to humans that that found in cattle.

B. melitenses is found in goats and sheep and causes the most severe illness in humans.

Brucellosis abortus, which is found in cattle and which the buffalo have a strain of has never transferred from buffalo to cattle, is not usually fatal in humans and the intermittent fevers can be exhausting and last a few days. This disease is CURABLE. No need to clear bison from the landscape, as Christian Mackay suggested.

Given all this information, Brucellosis abortus cannot realistically be considered a dangerous disease. Therefore, the entirety of Section 1 should be revoked.
I do support DOL having to receive landowner permission!

Upcoming Buffalo Hearings

Dear Friends of the Buffalo,

Please attend and testify at these hearings in support of keeping the legal status and treatment of wild buffalo as wildlife (SB 207 and SB 212), for restoring wild free ranging buffalo in Montana (HB 318, SB 212 and SB 207), and keeping livestock inspectors from trespassing on private property where wild buffalo are valued and welcomed in our neighborhoods and communities (SB 148).  All of these bills need to be opposed and defeated.

PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED THIS WEEK ON BUFFALO BILLS IN HELENA, MONTANA CAPITOL BUILDING

SB 148 Hearing scheduled SENATE Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Committee Tuesday, January 25, Room 335, 3 PM

SB 207 Hearing scheduled SENATE Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Committee Thursday, January 27, Room 335, 3 PM

SB 212 Hearing scheduled SENATE Fish and Game Committee Thursday, January 27, Room 422, 3 PM

HB 318 Hearing scheduled HOUSE Agriculture Committee Thursday, January 27, Room 472, 3 PM

If you can't attend these hearings, please call and contact Montana legislators via this number: (406) 444-4800.

Please get involved and spread the word to save America's last wild buffalo herd!  Make contact with your Montana legislators through this link (click on the area where you reside): http://nris.mt.gov/gis/legislat/2011/

To submit written testimony, contact the secretary of the respective committee.  Address your testimony to the Chair and members of the committee, and ask that your testimony be entered into the hearing record.

House committee members (and secretaries) can be found and contacted through this link:  http://leg.mt.gov/css/House/house-committees-2011.asp

Senate committee members (and secretaries) can be found and contacted through this link: http://leg.mt.gov/css/Senate/senate%20committees-2011.asp

SB 148 online:  http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/SB0148.htm

The primary sponsor Sen. Art Wittich is a Republican from Bozeman:  senatorwittich@montana.com. SB 148's exemptions for entry essentially guts the provision of notifying and obtaining approval from landowners PRIOR to Dept. of Livestock inspectors coming onto private property to force buffalo to flee said property.  Current law 81-2-120 does not permit livestock inspectors to trespass on private lands to harass and harm wild buffalo where they are welcomed and valued. There is no "public health and safety" threat where buffalo are permitted by landowners to be on their property. The logic of SB 148 begs the question:  will elk become a "public health and safety" threat too?

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/LAW0210W$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_NO1=148&P_BLTP_BILL_TYP_CD=SB&Z_ACTION=Find

SB 207 online: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/SB0207.htm

The primary sponsor Sen. Frederick "Eric" Moore  is a Republican from Miles City: mail@senatorericmoore.com. SB 207 reclassifies ALL buffalo as livestock in Montana. The Dept. of Livestock is required to impose a permit and inspection system for buffalo coming into/out of any county, or into/out of state. "A person who purposely or knowingly transports wild or domestic buffalo or bison in violation of rules adopted pursuant to this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not more than $1,000 or be imprisoned in the county jail for not more than 6 months, or both." Prohibits buffalo to "run at large" and makes owners of said buffalo liable with penalties for trespass onto private property. SB 207 classifies any wild buffalo, including those from Yellowstone as "estrayed," permitting the Dept. of Livestock to take them.

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/LAW0210w$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_DFT_NO5=LC1050&Z_ACTION=Find

SB 212 online:  http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/SB0212.htm

The primary sponsor Sen. Rick Ripley is a Republican from Wolf Creek. SB 212 requires Fish, Wildlife & Parks to adopt a plan BEFORE any wild buffalo can be released onto private or public lands in Montana. The plan MUST include: animal identification, tracking and containment measures (fencing and removal methods) in "designated areas" and makes Fish, Wildlife & Parks liable for any costs incurred for damages to private property. Fish, Wildlife & Parks "may not release or transplant wild buffalo or bison on state or federal land in Montana if the relocation or transplantation would negatively affect any existing multiple use of the land, including livestock grazing."

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/LAW0210w$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_DFT_NO5=LC1052&Z_ACTION=Find#spon_table

HB 318 online:  http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/HB0318.htm

The primary sponsor Rep. Wendy Warburton is a Republican from Havre:  wendywarburton@gmail.com. HB 318 requires the approval of County Commissioners BEFORE the Dept. of Livestock or Fish, Wildlife & Parks may permit wild buffalo or buffalo certified brucellosis free to be relocated in Montana in the counties affected.

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/LAW0210w$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_DFT_NO5=LC1049&Z_ACTION=Find

Thank you for taking action to protect America's last wild buffalo and their descendants as a valued wildlife species freely roaming Montana.

For the Buffalo,

Daniel Brister, Executive Director

Buffalo Field Campaign

Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working in the field

and in the policy arena to protect America's last wild buffalo.

Letter to MDOL on SB 207

SB 207 Managing Bison as Livestock

My name is Julia Vincent.  I live in Helena, Montana.  My grandparents were Montana homesteaders.  My mother's family homesteaded in Daniels County.  My father's parents homesteaded along the north fork of the Flathead river.  My grandfather, Ray Vincent, was acting superintendent of Glacier National Park.  My father, John D. Vincent, was a foreman and a ranger in The Park.

In the 1800's, the Department of the Interior was complaining that Indians and Buffalo are taking grassland away from cattle.  This mentality remains in control to this day.  The attacks on genetically pure bison are fueled by fear, not by reality.  Taxpayers' money continues to be misused to fund an archaic, racist war.  Giving Yellowstone Bison to Ted Turner while refusing to give them to local indigenous nations was borne out of the livestock industry's fear that Indians are going to bring back the Buffalo. Now you are attempting to eradicate them by re-labeling the last remnant of genetically pure bison as livestock. Livestock are animals your ancestors brought to the western hemisphere when they emigrated to this foreign land. Genetically pure bison are indigenous wildlife, sacred to the First Nations.

And, as you already know, there is not even one documented case of bison giving brucellosis back to the cattle who brought it here to begin with.  More taxpayers' money being spent on a lie.

Tatanka is not livestock!  Let the genetically pure buffalo roam.

Appropriations $ to Slaughter Bison

Tester and Baucus succeeded in getting passed in legislation, money to "fight and manage the threat of brucellosis." The money would come from the Agriculture Appropriations Act.

The Agriculture Appropriations Act would give funding to Montana Department of Livestock's Brucellosis Management-- a.k.a. bison slaughter.

Tester and Baucus have requested $500,000 for Montana State University- Bozeman to:

• create refine and simplify brucellosis vaccines for livestock,
  
• to develop an effective vaccine for bison and elk
  
• to test the vaccines in animals. (Animals...this is pretty vague.)

They also request $500,000 to implement the Tribal Quarantine Facility for Yellowstone National Park Bison for the Inter Tribal Bison Cooperative in Fort Belknap.

This money would be used to:

• develop facilities on Tribal lands in Montana to deal with the buffalo coming out of the Yellowstone National Park quarantine facilities

• ensure animals are going to Public land and Tribes and not to fund the privatization of a public trust animal. (Interesting...this is the government that gave 88 Yellowstone bison to Ted Turner.)

The legislation must first pass the full Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives before the funding can be signed into law.

Idaho to Kill 50% Wolf Population

Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) wants to kill 518 gray wolves in the state out of the 1,000 that live there. This is 8 times the recovery goal and the wolves are increasing in population by 20% annually (too bad we don't have the same rules about invasive species). Hunters will be used to "manage" wolves (just like the buffalo). The focus areas for hunting will be where invasive livestock have taken over and in the Lolo Elk Zone where the number of elk is decreasing by 13% each year. IDFG puts a good portion of the blame on the wolves (what a surprise), saying that other predators such as, black bears and mountain lions kill elk too, but when the wolves are "managed" the elk numbers will increase. This decrease in elk has caused a decrease in hunting ($$$)

So, the mindset of the European settlers lives on in Idaho.

How Much Land is Used for Livestock?

I've said before cattle is a billion $ industry here. In 2006 the state made $1.1 billion. Many of the sales were to: Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas. According to MT DEQ. (photo by Jason Stajich)
This billion $ industry is destroying the native landscape. The home of wildlife. Here's a run down of how much land is being destroyed for this non-native invasive species. Montana itself is comprised of 93 million acres.

• 38 million acres is pasture and range land. That's more than a third of the state!
• 18 million is used for crops. (What a waste when it could be used for livestock :P)
• Up to 13,000 acres a year are becoming ranch land for livestock.

Cattle is a huge issue across the entire U.S. I was reading an article in the IR that the US exports of milk is down from 11% to 5%, which means there is too much milk b/c there are too many cows. So, the solution? Kill over 100,000 cows across the country! Surprisingly or not, Montana isn't slaughtering any.

The cattle industry is all about greed. Cattle are not a native species and shouldn't be here. Nature agrees. In March and April Montana was hit by blizzards causing 4,000 livestock in Powder River and Carter counties to die. More died in Glacier, Teton, and Lewis and Clark counties.

Call for end to USDA's wildlife killing agency

That's the title of an AP article I just found.
This is good news for wildlife and all of us who are sick and tired of the Department of Livestock slaughtering native species!

The article is from last week and states that "115 environmental groups signed onto a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to abolish the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services."

Currently tax payers are subsidizing a "$100 million program that kills more than 1 million wild animals annually, a program ranchers and farmers have defended for nearly a century as critical to protecting their livestock from predators."

Who oversees Wildlife Services? APHIS (surprise surprise)

What are some stats from this program? In 2007 121,524 carnivores were killed at the request of ranchers. As well as, "Hundreds of thousands of other animals, including ravens and raccoons, also are killed through the program." Black bears and endangered gray wolves are also among these according to the article.

Carol Bannerman, a spokeswoman for the USDA says that when they are given a request they review each individual project "and move ahead only if there would be no long-term negative impact on the environment." What does this mean? Like they haven't had a "long-term negative impact on the environment." The whole industry is a negative impact. They've been killing buffalo and wolves for 200 years to get land for their livestock.

As stated in 1874 by U.S. Representative Conger,
"They (buffalo) 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."

SB 337 (Slaughter Bill 337)

So, a new bill aimed at eradicating America's last wild buffalo will have a hearing on Tuesday February 17th. The bill is the flip of HB 253 which was to give FWP management of the buffalo. SB (Slaughter Bill) 337 will do just the opposite and actually increase the number of buffalo sent to slaughter. Not only the ones who test positive for antibodies or the disease brucellosis, but those who have tested negative to both. [FWP] shall cooperate with the [DOL] in managing publicly owned wild bison or buffalo..The department [Fish, Wildlife and Parks] may not relocate wild buffalo or bison as a result of the state-federal bison quarantine feasibility study. If they're not relocated, they're slaughtered.

The Yellowstone buffalo are still called a species requiring disease control. Here's something interesting the bill says it will also designate other wild buffalo or bison as a species in need of management.

The department [FWP] is responsible for the management, including but not limited to public hunting, of wild buffalo or bison in this state that have not been exposed to or infected with a dangerous or contagious disease but may threaten persons or property.

There's ALOT of stuff in that sentence. I want to break it down.
that have not been exposed or infected This is key to allowing healthy, strong buffalo to be slaughtered.
a dangerous or contagious disease What are these?? This could be more than brucellosis. It looks like the legislature wants to make sure they don't miss anything.
may threaten persons or property--Only while being hazed.

Download SB337

You can help the buffalo by writing to President Barak Obama to take action and protect these magnificent animals. BFC has a sample letter that you can edit here

For the buffalo.