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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

200 captured Yellowstone bison to be slaughtered

Becky Bohrer Associated Press

BILLINGS – Roughly 200 wandering bison have been captured at Yellowstone National Park, and officials there plan to send the animals straight to slaughter, without first testing them for the disease brucellosis, a park spokesman said Wednesday.

Al Nash also said a small group of those bison could be shipped off as early as today.

It’s the first time since the winter of 2003-04 that bison have been captured within park boundaries at the Stephen’s Creek capture site, park officials said. The last time the facility was open, more than 260 bison were sent to slaughter, the park said.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said state livestock officials would not assist in shipping bison to slaughter, as they’ve done previously.

Since the capture is being led by the National Park Service, another federal agency involved because of the disease aspect – the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – should be responsible for that, he said.

Nash said the bison, some of which were on private property, had been hazed – in some cases, repeatedly. The park said in a news release that hazing was no longer a safe or effective option for dealing with bison in the area.

Holding them indefinitely at the corrallike capture site wasn’t an option, either, Nash said, because of concerns with habituating the bison.

“I think one of the things we try to remind people is, wild bison are not domestic cattle,” Nash said in a telephone interview. “They’re not animals that are to be kept for extended periods of time in a confined area and given feed and water.”

Many of the park’s bison have brucellosis, as do some elk in the region, and the disease can cause cows to abort.

Under a state-federal management plan, aimed at reducing the potential spread of brucellosis from bison to cattle in Montana, wandering bison can be hazed, or captured and tested for the disease. Bison that test positive are shipped to slaughter.

But given the size of Yellowstone’s bison herd – an estimated 4,900 animals – officials have the option under the plan of sending any captured bison straight to slaughter without testing them, Nash said. He called the move the “toughest decision we have to make.”

Conservationists argue the management plan isn’t working and needs to be fixed. They contend that bison need more habitat and need to be treated more like other wildlife, such as elk or deer.

“We can’t continue to treat Yellowstone like an island,” said Amy McNamara, national parks program director with the Bozeman-based Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Mike Mease, of the Buffalo Field Campaign, said Yellowstone-area landowners should accept responsibility for what comes with living in the area, including a potential for wandering bison.

Separately, state wildlife officials on Tuesday announced plans to halt temporarily the hunting of bison that leave the park’s western border, beginning after sunset Wednesday, to allow for the hazing of animals that have ventured too far into Montana on that side.

Nash said the capture operations near the park’s northern border shouldn’t affect bison hunting in that area.