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Emergency appeal to end bison slaughter

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Bison advocates and environmental groups submitted an emergency appeal to federal officials on Thursday to halt the continued slaughter of bison migrating from Yellowstone National Park. Matthew Brown of the Associated Press reports:

Since last fall, 1,615 bison seeking food at lower elevations outside the park have been killed or removed, under a state-federal livestock disease management program and through hunting.

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With another wave of the animals expected to journey soon to Montana calving grounds, critics say the slaughter is threatening the viability of Yellowstone’s bison herds.

“It’s a national tragedy. Something has to be done to protect these majestic creatures,” said D.J. Schubert with the Animal Welfare Institute.

Schubert’s group joined 12 others and four individuals in filing an administrative petition with the Department of Interior to suspend the slaughter program.

Among the other groups were the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Humane Society of the United States, the Buffalo Field Campaign and the American Indian Law Alliance.

This year’s slaughter — combined with a public hunt and the removal of some animals for testing — has cut the park’s bison population by more than a third. Park officials contend the herds have rebounded from similar reductions.

After more than 1,000 bison were killed or removed for research during the winter of 2005-2006, the population had recovered by 2007.

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Yellowstone’s two herds make up the largest surviving group of wild bison in the world. Park spokesman Al Nash said Yellowstone biologists do not believe this year’s slaughter threatened its viability. He said the Park Service already has taken steps on the north end of the park to hold some captured bison until they can be released once the snow melts. “We review our actions and make changes as appropriate,” he said.

But those who filed Thursday’s petition said the park had failed to account for genetic differences in Yellowstone’s two herds. Because most of the animals killed came from just one — the Central herd — they said argued the slaughter program could have unforeseen consequences.

“These large scale, wholesale slaughters cannot be sustained over the long term without genetic harm,” said Darrell Geist with the Buffalo Field Campaign. In a related action, three of the groups involved in Thursday’s emergency petition asked Montana Gov.

Brian Schweitzer and state and federal agencies to halt bison captures in an area west of the park known as Horse Butte. The groups said there was little chance bison on the butte could transmit the disease brucellosis to livestock, since cattle no longer graze in the area.

Thirty-four bison were captured from Horse Butte this week.

The last of those were shipped to slaughter Thursday. About half of Yellowstone’s bison test positive for exposure to brucellosis, which can cause pregnant cows to abort their calves. However, no cattle-to-bison transmissions have been recorded.

The moves to halt the slaughter follows a report from the Government Accountability Office last week that criticized state and federal agencies for making little progress to stem the slaughter. The GAO report said a plan adopted eight years ago to slowly increase tolerance for bison outside the park had effectively stalled.

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The agencies involved — the Forest Service, Park Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and Montana Department of Livestock — have failed to come up with an effective brucellosis vaccine and other steps outlined in a 2000 agreement.

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