The big, shaggy carcasses of buffalo continue to dot the Montana countryside despite government and Native American protests.
A prayer was said outside Yellowstone National Park, asking for an end to the slaughter of animals in the nation's last free-roaming bison herd.
Yet even as Native American medicine men passed a sacred buffalo pipe and prayed for the killings to end, Montana state riflemen gunned down another dozen animals, bringing the years bison death toll well above 1,000.

"We demand that the slaughter stop," said Joseph Kicking Horse, one of several Native Americans who came from reservations in South Dakota to lead the two-hour ceremony just inside the northern border of the park.

Why were these animals slaughtered?
Ranchers fear the bison will spread brucellosis -- which causes cows to abort their calves -- to livestock grazing near the park.

Fact: More than 40,000 cattle have been tested in Wyoming from October 1997 to October 1998, but none of them were found positive for brucellosis

That means that 1100 buffalo were slaughtered FOR NO REASON - and you've got the HEADS to PROVE it.

More information on the buffalo at:
Mother Jones News
Buffalo Field Campaign

What is the real problem here?

RANCHERS are grazing their personal herds on PUBLIC LANDS that the TAXPAYER foots the bill for and then the Ranchers BITCH because the Buffalo, who are wild and free DARE to come onto PUBLICLY OWNED LANDS in the MIDDLE of WINTER to try and eat whatever little bits they can find ... and who foots the bill for all of this?
It is the AMERICAN TAXPAYERS...thats who.

We the AMERICAN PUBLIC need to demand this be stopped.

It is now the spring of 2001 and the buffalo slaughter still continues.
There has not been a wholesale slaughter like in 1997 ... [probably because the outraged public and the internet have kept more than a watchful eye on the situation.

Report from the field May 5, 2001

Greetings Friends,

The word this week is the same as it has been for the past month: haze, haze, haze. The Montana Department of Livestock(DoL), Forest Service, and Park Service agents have been at it all week, with the largest operation occurring on Tuesday. The DoL helicopter was in the air, assisting horseback riders and All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) in moving about 40 bison from Horse Butte back across the invisible Yellowstone National Park boundaries. The helicopter was video taped flying as low as 15 feet over the Madison River inside of the park.

Agents are out again this morning, attempting to haze about 30 bison, including 8 newborn calves, seven miles from Horse Butte to Yellowstone. This group was able to escape the operation on Tuesday by running into an eagle closure. The closure is in place to protect bald eagle nests from human disturbance during the mating and rearing seasons.

While the number of bison outside the park is beginning to decline, others continue to move out. A group of 30 buffalo, probably hazed on Tuesday, was seen approaching the border on Wednesday afternoon. Sunny weather has helped to green up the area, and the bison are enjoying the fresh spring grass. Our hope is that there is enough food for the nursing mothers, and stressed calves, to survive the continued harassment of these government agencies.

Wildlife spotted on patrol this week: moose, elk, black bear, bald eagle, osprey, red tailed hawk, white pelican, sandhill crane, double crested cormorant, mountain bluebird, red winged blackbird, and a wonderful influx of thousands of monarch butterflies.

We are currently securing operating funds for our summer campaign when we set up educational tables in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. Last year we talked to over 25,000 folks about the plight of the buffalo and distributed 100,000 copies of our educational newsletter (with your help!). If you can help out financially - it would be appreciated.

Thanks for all your support that allows us to stay on the frontlines and defend the last wild buffalo and their habitat!

Buffalo Field Campaign
(formerly Buffalo Nations)
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070 phone
406-646-0071 fax
buffalo@wildrockies.org
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo

Below is my two cents worth that I hope, Linda, you might find room to place somewhere - I never realized how totally corrupt and deceitful those charged with caring for life have become, until I began searching the internet to help with the founding principles of Wolf Alliance. The total disregard for life and the refusal to listen to the majority is absolutely astounding. This world has become so corrupt by "Love of Money" that there is almost no room left for any living creature on the Face of this Earth. What a sad, sad reality. And if any concern is shown, such as that about the major decline in frogs and salamanders, it is not for the sake of those species, but because there demise is an extremely powerful indicator of the fate that is waiting for us, just around the corner. Sometimes, I guess I just need to "vent" my frustration at the complacency, (Smugness), of Most Humankind.

URL for New Mexico Dept of Game and Fish (Albequrque)
NM Fish and Game

EMAIL web_adm@gmfsh.state.nm.us
General Information,
Please Call 1-800-862-9310

BOMBARD them with Phone calls...
may only be 75 Buffalo but this is an extremely dangerous precedence that is being set here - there is NO EXCUSE for this except MONEY!

Like Canada, the Departments in the United States, who are supposed to protect and preserve our Wildlife are turning more and more to "KILL MANAGEMENT," instead of finding viable options of which many exist. The increasing disregard for the Sacredness of ALL Life is totally repugnant and fast becoming the acceptable norm because most people choose to remain SILENT, thinking that either, "someone else will speak up," or "what can my one voice do" - WELL your voice, your 2 minutes out of your day could be the last voice needed to SAVE a SPECIES from EXTINCTION! Right now 1/3 of ALL the Earth's Natural Resources, (forest, wildlife, water, etc.) is GONE - TOTALLY GONE! EXTINCT! And, we are about to Permit that figure to rise.

Think about this long and hard - not only is the YELLOWSTONE BUFFALO HERD facing another SLAUGHTER - they are facing EXTINCTION after OCT.16th. 1998 - the VERY LAST of the FREE DESCENDENTS of the GREAT PRAIRIE BISON slated for SLAUGHTER this WINTER - and now another small herd is being threatened by Oct 15th. 1998. IS this the SATISFACTORY solution to all WILDLIFE problems any more? WHAT or WHO will be next. OUR DEPARTMENTS that the PUBLIC trusts to CARE FOR ALL WILD CREATURES are instead MANAGING them for "TOP DOLLAR" and are in fact very efficient KILLING MACHINES. These Depts. find excuse after excuse to Slaughter, Permit Decimation of a species, Annihilate and much, much more - and it is ALL done for MONEY - absolutely NO OTHER REASON. Well, when the last Free Buffalo is felled, the last Wolf shot, the last Grizzly silenced, the last Wilderness Space overrun with Condominiums, maybe then we will ALL realize what a truly uncompassionate lot of Humanity we are, for in reality, not only have we killed the Wildlife and Wild Spaces, we have indeed Killed ourselves.

UNTIL WE EXTEND THE CIRCLE OF OUR COMPASSION TO ALL LIVING THINGS, WE WILL NOT OURSELVES FIND PEACE! (Albert Schweitzer)

The word "THING" - if looked up in the dictionary is the term used to imply, "ALL LIVING ENTITIES"

State plans to auction Fort
Wingate buffalo
By BEN NEARY
The New Mexican

After years of controversy over what to do with the 75 bison in a herd at Fort Wingate, the state plans to auction them off. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has issued a draft study, called an environmental assessment, that states the agency intends to round up the animals this winter. The state wants the herd off the property before the federal government turns the retired U.S. Army base near Gallup over to the Navajo and Zuni Indians next year.

The department found itself in a public relations debacle after it announced plans in 1995 to allow hunters to shoot nine buffalo. On the eve of the scheduled hunt, a coalition of New Mexico Indian tribes and animal rights activists secured a court order blocking the hunt on the grounds that the department and the federal government had failed to study the environmental consequences. The hunt never went forward.

Despite standing requests from New Mexico Indian tribes interested in getting the animals, the state Game Commission - the body that sets game department policy - voted this summer not to give the animals to the tribes.

Chris Chadwick, public information officer for the game department in Albuquerque, said Monday that the commissioners decided to sell the animals at auction to get as much money as possible for the state's sportsmen. The game department brought the herd into the state in the 1960s with the intention of offering bison hunts, but while a number of the animals have been auctioned off over the years, hunts never materialized.

Chadwick said the game department plans to sell 15 of the smaller bison separately to give individuals a chance to buy them. He said the remaining 60 or so animals will all be sold together. The minimum bid for the animals will be $250 each, he said. While the smaller animals can probably be herded up, some of the larger bulls - which can reach weights approaching one ton - may have to be drugged to move them, the environmental assessment says.

Interest in bison has increased nationwide in recent years and Chadwick said the department has already heard that some breeders may be interested in acquiring the herd.

While bison once roamed the American Great Plains in untold millions, they were almost exterminated in the last century. Although their numbers have rebounded, Chadwick said breeders are still interested in getting genetic diversity from different herds because so many animals were raised from the small surviving populations. Anyone interested in bidding on the animals needs to contact the Albuquerque office of the game department for a packet of bidding specifications. Chadwick said the department is considering setting an Oct. 15 deadline for bidders to contact the department but said the final date hasn't been determined.

Grove Burnett, the Taos lawyer who represented the coalition in stopping the planned bison hunt a few years ago, said Monday that he's disappointed the Game Commission has opted to sell the bison. "It's certainly unfortunate that they couldn't see their way to transfer these buffalo to the tribes that wanted them and for whom the buffalo remains an important part of their culture and history," Burnett said. Burnett, whose firm specializes in environmental law, said he intends to review the game department's environmental study of the effect of selling the buffalo.

"We'll certainly review it, particularly in light of the fact that they've made a decision not to transfer the buffalo to the tribes, and the tribes have indicated their complete willingness to take the animals," Burnett said of the environmental assessment.

Lisa Jennings, with Animal Protection of New Mexico, had participated in the lawsuit to block the buffalo hunt. Now, she says she opposes plans to herd the animals and sell them.

Although Jennings said she hasn't read the environmental assessment, she said, "It sets a very dangerous precedent for other wildlife in the state for the Game Commission or the game department to be rounding up wildlife in the state that's held in the public trust and auctioning them off to the highest bidder," Jennings said. "That could set a very dangerous precedent for wildlife in the state. We don't think that's how wildlife should be managed. It should be managed for all the people in New Mexico and the United States."

Picuris Pueblo was among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to stop the hunt a few years ago. The pueblo has its own herd of about 15 bison. Eagle Rael, a councilman at Picuris Pueblo, said Monday that the pueblo would be interested in taking some of the bison from Fort Wingate but said that because the Indians have a spiritual relationship with the animals, that the pueblo would not pay for them. "That's the way it usually is, they're trying to make money on them," Rael said of the department's plan to auction off the animals. Chadwick, spokesman for the game department, noted that the department lent 23 bison to various Indian pueblos a few years ago in response to a nonbinding resolution passed by the Legislature in the aftermath of the aborted hunt.

"I think that the thought process was that we had met the spirit of the legislative proposal," Chadwick said of the Game Commission's position on the matter.

The game department is collecting public comments on the environmental assessment through Oct. 15, Chadwick said Monday. For a copy of the document, contact the department's Albuquerque office at 841-8881.

Published in The New Mexican on 10/07/1998