Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC)
News from the Field
March 31, 2005
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In this Issue:
* Update from the Field
* Comment on Quarantine Proposal
* Week of Action - Boycott the Livestock Industry
* Thank you AIM and Rosalie Little Thunder
* Last Words
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* Update from the Field
Hard to know how to begin this update; it is a very hard one to tell.
The week started out with a haze on Friday. The Department of
Livestock (DOL), Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP), U.S. Forest Service,
and U.S. Park Service, along with the help of the local sheriff, pushed
45 buffalo back into Yellowstone National Park, off Horse Butte, off
the bluffs of the Madison, across highway 191. After the haze was
over and the agents gone, the buffalo turned right back around and
headed back to Horse Butte. They know where they need to
be, and it is their right to be there.
On Saturday, a mixed herd of fourteen buffalo migrated along Duck
Creek, attempted to cross the road, and were hazed back to the Park by
the local DOL agent, Shane Grube. Those buffalo came right back
out again, too, only this time they entered the private land of Dale
Koelzer, where lies the Duck Creek buffalo trap. The agents have
been baiting the buffalo with fresh hay and leaving the gate open. On
Easter Sunday, under the cover of darkness, the agents shut the gate.
The buffalo were imprisoned after only a single attempt to haze them.
Monday went by without knowing the fate of the fourteen buffalo in the
trap. The buffalo on the Butte were spotted by two DOL agents on
snowmobiles. BFC patrols kept well hidden and were able to
document a vicious attempt by a DOL agent to run over a yearling that
stood in the road. Luckily the little one got out of the way just in
time. Bitter and cruel, the agents sped off. Later that day as
patrols were helping with a buffalo crossing, the same blue pickup
truck that shot at one of our patrol cars last week drove by and
actually shot one of our volunteers in the back with paint balls. They
got caught. That was the best news of the week.
Tuesday came and we watched the Duck Creek trap all day and all
night. Our patrols documented agents poking and prodding the
captive wild buffalo with electric cattle prods, hooting, hollering,
and taunting them them from above. Trapped and frightened, the
buffalo suffered the bullying. The agents demonstrated sinister
behavior towards the buffalo and then would turn around to laugh at our
volunteers. These agents are cruel, and they enjoy tormenting the
buffalo and tormenting us. This is all very typical
behavior. What they don't realize is that we, like the buffalo, are far
stronger than they could ever imagine.
Enter the nightmare of Wednesday. Attempting to find out from the
DOL what the fate of the fourteen buffalo would be was much like
pulling teeth. They didn't want to tell us in a timely fashion,
because they didn't want us to tell the story. But we found
out. Of the fourteen, six females and two bulls tested "positive"
for brucellosis exposure and were sent to slaughter, three bull
yearlings were sent to a quarantine facility, and two cows and a bull
were "released" and hazed to the far end of Horse Butte. Before
the three were let go, the agents hazed about 150 buffalo off of the
Butte. Some of these buffalo had found their wounded matriarch, a
pregnant female and mother of a yearling, who nearly a month ago had
been struck by a car and came away with a broken leg. She had
been holding her own. She was caught up in additional hazing
operations over the course of the weeks, had made it back to the Butte,
and had found herself a safe harbor there. She was surviving, and
if she didn't, she would help give life to grizzlies, ravens, wolves,
and coyotes. But she did survive. Her family members came
back for her. We can only imagine the reunion it was. And she was
with them when the motorized cowboys came after them again. She
was with her herd, running from the agents, sometimes in the lead,
sometimes in the middle, but never behind. The motorized cowboys
singled her out. Our patrols were documenting the haze when they heard
three gunshots. They killed her. Then they tied her to the back
of a snowmobile, a rope around her neck and horns, and dragged her body
to a flatbed truck. She was then hauled to the local dump and
left with the trash to be incinerated. The agents claim they were
doing her some sort of favor, but why didn't they do it closer to the
time she got hit? They had ample opportunity. They should have
just left her alone and let her go back to the Earth, not burn her with
the trash.
We have lost nine of our friends this week, nine of America's last wild
buffalo, to the greed and fear of the livestock industry and the
government puppets that do their bidding. All supposedly in the
name of protecting the invisible cattle from a disease -
brucellosis - brought to our wildlife by cattle. A disease that
wild buffalo have NEVER transmitted to cattle. But, it's not
about brucellosis; this is a range war. It is about the grass and
who gets to eat it. The livestock producers believe strongly that
the grass is meant only for fattening their cattle. But the
buffalo and other wildlife were here first, and they hold natural,
ancestral rights to the land that they are repeatedly and harshly kept
from accessing. Watching them move with their heads down, as they
are pushed off of their homeland, is like watching a trail of tears
over and over and over again.
With every haze, the DOL agents cause terrific trouble. For the
wild buffalo and other wildlife, but also for the motorists who use
highway 191. Every time the agents push the buffalo back into the
Park, the buffalo turn back around, and have to cross the highway again
and again. The buffalo just want to get to Horse Butte.
This is national forest land where there are no active cattle grazing
allotments. It is also the traditional calving grounds of the
buffalo. With its massive south-facing slopes, Horse Butte offers
the first shoots of good green grass each Spring. It is
surrounded by water, and provides a natural buffer, so if separation
from cattle is really what the livestock industry wants, Horse Butte
provides it. So, why can't the buffalo be left alone there at
least? The people who live near the Butte want the buffalo
there. But the agencies involved are deaf to logic, and are only
interested in protecting the property rights of livestock producers,
even on our public lands. So what can we do? It all comes
down choice: wild buffalo or livestock. You can make the decision every
time you go to the grocery store. You can choose to support the
industrial livestock industry, or you can choose not to. It's
that simple.
As I write this, the agents are out again in full force, hazing buffalo
off the Butte. Tonight, the buffalo will move back across the
highway towards the Butte again. The agents' efforts are
ridiculous and fruitless.
You can help stop the slaughter of America's last wild buffalo, and all
the other wildlife - prairie dogs, wolves, wild horses, etc. - that
fall victim to the greed of the livestock industry. Your voice,
your actions, your choices determine how much power the livestock
industry has. Make the choice for wild, free-roaming
buffalo re-inhabiting their native lands.
For the Buffalo,
~Stephany
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* Comment on Quarantine Proposal
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) in
cooperation with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) issued a notice of intent to produce an Environmental
Assessment (EA) for Phases II and III of a "bison quarantine
feasibility study." Yesterday, after being captured, tested, and
tormented by livestock agents, three yearling bulls were sent to a
quarantine facility. They are the first three. They have been
torn from their families. They have been ripped from their mother's
sides. Most likely, their mothers have been sent to
slaughter. These yearlings will be held in confinement, in a cage
the size of a big back yard, surrounded by double-electric
fencing. They will be there for years. They will be tested
and re-tested and tested again. They will grow up without
mothers, aunts, or elders. They will grow up unable to migrate.
They will be stripped of their wildness. They will reach maturity
not knowing what it really means to be a wild buffalo, but they will
feel the pull of something far greater than the life they've been
locked into. More than half of the 200 yearling-goal that
are captured and sent to quarantine will be slaughtered.
Speak out against this attempt to domesticate wild Yellowstone
buffalo. Let FWP and APHIS know that these buffalo are not
available for their science projects. The solutions to restoring
wild buffalo to their native range are rooted in the restoration of
migratory corridors where buffalo can re-inhabit the ancient lands of
their ancestors at their own time and pace. If Montana Fish,
Wildlife & Parks wants to help restore buffalo, then let them work
to create habitat within the Greater Yellowstone Area for the expanding
wild herd. These buffalo are not domestic cattle.
Quarantine is simply not appropriate or acceptable for the last wild,
genetically pure buffalo in the this country.
Visit
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/legislative/bisonquarantine.html
for more information including the agency's notice of intent and the EA
for Phase I. FWP will be accepting comments on the proposal
until April 15, 2005. Email your comments to
BisonQuarantineEA@mt.gov
or send them to Bison Quarantine EA, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks,
P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701; fax: 406-444-4952. Contact
BFC's Josh Osher with questions:
bfc-advocate@wildrockies.org.
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* Week of Action - Boycott the Livestock Industry
"Beef: It's what's killing wild buffalo."
During the week of April 30 - May 8, we will be conducting education
and outreach regarding the dire effects of the livestock industry. We
call on you to join us in a Boycott. Livestock producers cause
more harm to this country's wildlife than nearly any other industry.
"Beef, it's what's for dinner" is the very thing that is killing our
wild buffalo, wild horses, prairie dogs, wolves, and the countless
other plant and animal species that suffer to appease the fears and
greed of livestock producers.
If you have information that you want us to share with supporters,
please let us know. We want to offer books, resources, recipes,
examples of livestock-induced destruction, and more. Please
send your ideas and suggestions to Stephany at
bfc-media@wildrockies.org.
Many thanks to those of you who have been sending us great quotes and
web sites - keep them coming!
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* Thank you AIM and Rosalie Little Thunder
Many thanks to Marty FireRider and Joseph Red Bear of the American
Indian Movement in San Diego. They invited BFC back on
their World Talk Radio program, American Indian Movement Today, where
we continued our discussion of the plight of the last wild
buffalo. We were joined on the program by Lakota elder Rosalie
Little Thunder, a co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign.
Thank you Marty, Joseph, and Rosalie! You are such a powerful
influence, and your voice lends a timeless strength and knowledge to
the cause of the last wild buffalo. It is an honor to know and
work with you to help protect these sacred beings. Let us rally
the troops and gather the voices so that the slaughter can be stopped
once and for all.
You can listen to yesterday's program by going to
http://www.worldtalkradio.com/archive.asp?aid=3723.
You need the latest version of Windows Media Player to listen.
In Solidarity for the Wild Things!
~Stephany
P.S. Get your beautiful selves to West Yellowstone, and bring
lots of friends! We are waiting!
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* Last Words
"He knew where he was, and watching [the stars go by] could almost
forget the strange noises and uncertain swaying of the train that
carried him tirelessly and headlong into the night. In darkness
not much spoke of change. He could imagine the hills black with
buffalo, moving slow and ponderous, with the solidity and weight of
sliding earth ... He could imagine this and feel a welling, a springing
in his blood."
~From "Dance Back the Buffalo" by Milton Lott
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