Posted on 01/09/2005 9:59:32 PM PST by claudiustg
The day after Montana officials voted to consider canceling the state's controversial bison hunt, officials in Wyoming said their state's hunt has attracted comparatively little attention.
‘‘There is no organized campaign,'' John Emmerich, assistant chief of the Wyoming Fish and Game wildlife division, said Friday. ‘‘I think locally some people oppose it.''
An estimated 850 bison live in Grand Teton National Park, even though Emmerich said the goal was for a herd of 400 to 500. So each year, the state issues 90 tags, with the goal of culling 30 to 50 bison from the herd.
‘‘The hunt is to stop growth of the herd and start reducing it,'' said Emmerich, adding that the agency would like to see more females taken.
With three new members appointed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Montana's Fish, Game and Parks commission voted 4-1 on Thursday to consider canceling the hunt, which was scheduled to begin Jan. 15. The hunt — canceled in 1991, but reinstated by the Montana Legislature in 2003 — had just been revived by the previous commission last month.
Advocates of hunting see it as a management tool for controlling bison, many of which are infected with brucellosis, a disease that ranchers fear could spread to cattle, causing cows to abort. Opponents have threatened to boycott Montana if the hunts continued.
I have a work site in Missoula, and I love Montana, including Missoula. However, there is quite a liberal contingent in that town. One of the ladies I was slated to work with at the Missoula site related to me, after I told her I liked Missoula, that "Missoula is cool, we don't have all the crazy right-winger's the rest of the state has". Once I related to her that she would be working for a "crazy right-winger", politics was dropped pretty quick for the rest of my term there. She was from Portland, go figure.
BTTT!!!!!!!
There is an ongoing problem with cattle having brucellosis in several Wyoming counties adjoining Yellowstone. The bison herd (buffalo) is the primary source.
Is this anti hunting group associated with the American Humane Society and PETA? I suspect yes.
We will see more anti hunting targets in the future because of the Humane society's declaration to stop hunting completely, one animal at a time.
brucellosis ???.......What's that Buffalo version of AID's ?
Schweitzer is willing to put the cattle industry of Montana at risk over 10 measly bison. Go figure who's pulling his strings.
Thats because Montana appeases all the tree hugger envirowackos so they continue to target Montana. Time for a big "California howdy" as Jethro calls it.
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