Herding the buffalo back to the refuge or getting them on/off a truck = “hard work”.
Shooting them and abandoning their carcasses = “little/no work”.
Government employee interactions with animals tend to end in the animals’ deaths. It’s what they do.
Pending full info, I’d guess the “refuge” approximates an Abu Graib standard of care. Animal activists should get involved.
I haven’t thought about Abu Ghraib since about 2007.
The refuge is beautiful and natural range, little human development or interface except tourists taking pictures. The buffalo herds there were among the first to bring the numbers back up from near extinction.
As far as your comparison to Abu Ghraib goes, the buffalo were naked.
There doesnt need to be any real danger or hard work for the government employee. It may even cost us taxpayers less if done properly.
A list of volunteers would take care of this kind of thing.
In a place like Oklahoma there has to be a guide or someone responsible enough to be able to kill it. Im sure there are plenty of people willing to break down and pick up for charity. I cant imagine that in Oklahoma there arent a number of nearby custom processors looking for a write off.
If there is some kind of law in that state that stops a volunteer from pulling the trigger then it still would be better for a ranger to have volunteer backups nearby, a mile or so, for safety and to take care of it afterwards.
We used to have where a vehicle struck carcass could be reported and the DNR would let a licensed weasel farmer know to pick it up. There isnt a weasel farmer willing to pay a license? There isnt a taxidermist that could be licensed to process and sell things to split with the department to help fund programs?
Doesnt a university need something like this? No, not regularly but maybe a professor for vets and natural resource students could use a few things and could have a shopping list of wishes. Maybe they could bring some of these students out to participate, something like an OJT opportunity.
There just has to be a better way even if its only marginally better. This way was just about the worst outcome possible other than spending a lot of money to leave the carcass in the guys living room.