FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, November 6, 1995
CONTACT:
D.J. Schubert, (202) 588-5206
Michael Markarian, (301) 585-2591
The State of Montana and the U.S. Government have reached a settlement agreement for the short-term management of Yellowstone's bison. The Fund for Animals today released a position statement highlighting a complete lack of scientific evidence to support the management program.
The settlement -- which may be finalized today in U.S. District Court in Helena, Montana -- calls for a revision to the existing plan to permit the capture, testing, and killing of most Yellowstone bison who approach the northern and western boundaries of Yellowstone National Park until an environmental impact statement (EIS) on a long-range plan is completed by July 1997. Though the settlement will allow some bison to inhabit public lands in Montana -- an improvement over a zero-tolerance policy advocated by the Montana Department of Livestock -- hundreds of bison will be killed unnecessarily to placate the livestock industry.
"Politics, not science, dictated the components of this settlement," states D.J. Schubert, Wildlife Biologist with Meyer and Glitzenstein, representing The Fund for Animals. "The agencies have ignored the scientific evidence and have bought into the campaign of paranoia orchestrated by the livestock industry at the expense of America's only free-roaming herd of bison."
The chance that a bison can transmit Brucella abortus -- the bacteria that causes brucellosis -- to cattle is extremely rare. Data collected on over 200 bison killed and sampled during the winter of 1991-92 revealed that none of those animals, at the time of their death, were capable of transmitting the bacteria, if such transmission is even possible. Not surprisingly, there has never been a documented case of transmission under natural conditions. "A cow is far more likely to jump over the moon than be exposed to Brucella abortus from a bison," quips Schubert.
"The American and international public should be outraged that the livestock industry has been allowed to slaughter Yellowstone's bison without regard to scientific evidence and common sense," concludes Schubert. "Citizens who are outraged by the destruction of these magnificent animals must tell their elected officials and tell the agencies who tolerate or encourage this travesty that the slaughter of bison must end."
The Fund for Animals is a national animal protection organization headquartered in New York City. The Fund has worked to protect Yellowstone's bison since 1985 and will continue to pursue all possible strategies, including litigation, to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's bison.
To see a copy of The Fund's position statement on the settlement agreement reached in State of Montana v. United States, click here.