State Officials Shoot 22 More Bison Wandering Animals Shot After Rangers Ordered To Back Off

This winter’s death toll for Yellowstone National Park buffalo has topped 1,000 after Montana Department of Livestock workers shot 22 more on Wednesday on the Royal Teton Ranch.

Rangers have been hazing bison back into the park almost daily, but ranger Jerry Ryder said the Livestock Department ordered them to back off Wednesday and let the department run the program.

By mid-afternoon, after Al Jensen complained to the department, rangers were allowed to haze the surviving herd back into the park.

The dead included one calf bearing an ear tag and a small sticker on its back, indicating it had been captured earlier this winter near West Yellowstone, tested for brucellosis and released dozens of miles from the Gardiner area.

Many of the bison carry brucellosis, which causes cattle to abort their calves, and Montana livestock producers fear the buffalo will infect their herds. Brucellosis also causes undulant fever in humans.

Jensen was angry that nobody had notified him before shooting so close to his home.

“They didn’t even have the decency to knock on the door,” he said, adding that the gunfire agitated his horses and awakened his daughter.

“People around here are tired of looking at blood and guts,” said Jensen, a retired ranch manager. “It’s about high time this slaughter came to a halt.”

He said he refuses to allow bison to be shot on his property.

Jensen also is concerned about the gut piles left behind after the buffalo are field dressed.

“They’re inviting every predator in the country right here to my back door,” he said.