Posted on 05/04/2002 9:14:38 AM PDT by Sungirl
.c The Associated Press
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - For the first time in nearly five years, the state of Montana this week began slaughtering bison that wander from Yellowstone National Park without testing the animals first for disease.
A state-federal bison management plan allows the slaughter without testing if the herd at Yellowstone surpasses 3,000 animals.
The current population is estimated at 3,300, the highest since the winter of 1996-97, when nearly 1,100 bison were killed by state and federal management officials when they left the park and entered Montana.
As of Friday, only 32 of the more than 100 animals that were outside the park had been killed, said Karen Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Montana Livestock Department.
State officials fear the bison will spread brucellosis to Montana cattle. The disease can cause cattle to abort their calves.
During the spring, bison leave the park in search of forage.
Normally, authorities use snowmobiles and helicopters to herd them back into the park. Those that cannot be herded back are captured and tested for brucellosis. Infected animals are sent to slaughter. The others are set free.
Mike Mease, co-founder of the protest group Buffalo Field Campaign, called the killings an atrocity. ``I'm sure they're going to capture and kill everything they can this year,'' he said.
On the Net:
Montana Livestock Department: http://www.liv.state.mt.us/
Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell
Buffalo Field Campaign: http://wildbison.org
04/26/02 16:50 EDT
why doesn't the author tell us how he really feels?
Actually, "slaughtering" is an appropriate descriptive term (pass the A-1, please).
Could be worse. Could've said massacred.
"Who gives a f**k about New York when elephants are being killed...Animals need saving and that's important...This New York thing is being blown way out of proportion."--Lee Ryan, of the British pop band "Blue"
"For 35 million Chickens in the United States alone, every single night is a terrorist attack."--Karen Davis, United Poultry Concern
"Worldwide, everyday, 125 million innocent sentient animals are dreadfully abused and butchered for food. These tragedies are perpetrated by a worldwide animal agricultural terrorist network that is much more threatening to planetary survival than the Al-Queda network."--Alex Hershaft, National Charirman, Animal Rights
"Many and perhaps most of the nine billion animals sent to slaughter in the US each year, as well as billions killed abroad, have at least as long to sense doom as did the Sept. 11 victims. Neither are the animals' last cries as unlike the cell phone calls made by some of the Sept. 11 victims as the typical meat-eater would like to believe."--Anonymous editorial in Animal Magazine.
Not if it has that darn mad cow disease. Only autoclaving in a chlorine slurry destroys that. Probably not very appetizing afterwards.
Depends on whether the disease in the article has any affect on humans. There's always the possibility of disease from wild game, yet look at the number of wild game hunters.
Here in Minnesota it would be hunting heresy not to cook what you killed. Without railroads and cattle companies paying top dollar for just the skins, I doubt you'll see a repeat of rotting bison carcasses covering the plains. People who shot them would almost certainly want the meat.
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