First, I am NOT defending this guy’s actions. He violated a law in umpteen western states, and a felony charge can be brought in most all western states for what he has done.
That said, people who have never been around bison need to understand that they’re not simply “bigger cows.” Bison are not cows - not even remotely. Bison are a force of nature. Individually, they’re like a tornado. In a herd, they’re like a hurricane.
I’ve seen bison push their way through Powder River gates (a brand of very high quality steel panels, gates, cattle handling equipment, etc). I don’t mean that they ran into them and knocked the gate over. I’m talking that the bison walked up to the locked gate, put his head down and pushed his way through. The bars on the gate simply spread like bars of butter and he simply pushed through.
Why did he do this? He wasn’t mean. He simply wanted to be on the other side. Calm as a sunday school teacher.
On the other side, he proceeded to push over small (6” diameter” pine trees as he used them as back scratchers. Bison are simply destructive. You’ve heard the old saying about “bull in a china shop?”
Bulls are pussycats next to bison. And the whole world is a china shop for bison.
They’re not cattle. A “legal” fence, per the code in western states, won’t hold bison. In Jiggs, NV there used to be a smaller ranch where someone was running bison. They used 4” gas field casing pipe (3/8” wall steel pipe, 4” diameter) sunk 10’ into the ground, and then they mounted galvanized steel guardrail on these pipes. The fence was six feet high.
That held them.
The Silverheels at mid-afternoon has become the town gathering spot, a place where the police chief and county undersheriff sit over coffee swapping police tales, occasionally sharing information on the slaughter with the locals.
It is, too, a place that is rife with rumor and half-truths, of tales that the shooters dropped piles of corn or other foodstuffs to lure the bison off the Downare ranch and into the killing zone, of one of the shooters racing into the herd on a snowmobile to make the animals run and make the kill at least a bit more sporting.
“You know the worst thing about it?” said Timm Anderson, his eyes almost misty. “Almost every one of those cows they killed — I heard 29 of them — were about to calve. Those men wiped out an entire herd! Unforgivable is what it is.”
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/28/south-parks-astir-over-bison-slaughter/
I suspect it did only because the bison decided not to go through it. There is a big ranch in WY along Hwy 58. It is fenced, but the rancher also feeds his herd. The fence would be a slight inconvenience should a bison decide to cross.
I do agree with you on bison being a “force of nature”. However, I still did not see anything about any damage being done to this guy’s property. The fact that he got other “permission” to kill the bison is quite premeditated, the guy made no attempt to contact local authorities for help,
I have watched Bison casually walk through brand new barb wire fence. It really is something- they simply walk without effort and the fence breaks away as if it were made of string. The power they have is awesome.