Posts Tagged ‘brucellosis’

11
Nov

Tribes want Yellowstone bison, but guess who’s going to get ‘em? Ted Turner

   Posted by: admin    in Assiniboine, bison, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Gros Ventre, Northern Arapaho, Shoshone, Wind River Reservation

Two bulls butt heads outside Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner. (James Woodcock/Billings Gazette)

Two bulls butt heads outside Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner. (James Woodcock/Billings Gazette)

The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes who live on Montana’s Fort Belknap Reservation, and the Northern Arapaho and Shoshone tribes on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming have long sought the several dozen bison corralled in holding pens for nearly four years now after straying beyond the borders of Yellowstone National Park.

Ranchers fear the park’s bison carry brucellosis, a disease that causes stillborn calves. For years now, when bison go outside in the park in search of winter forage, they’ve been slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease.

But some bison, after being declared disease-free, were spared. They’re the ones in the holding pens, and the idea is to use them to repopulate public and tribal lands across the West with free-roaming bison, writes the AP’s Matthew Brown, here.

However, those animals apparently will be relocated to a Montana ranch owned by billionaire Ted Turner, under a recommendation made by state and federal officials.

Turner already owns about 50,000 bison, and his restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill serves buffalo burgers. But Turner Enterprises general manager Russell Miller says the Yellowstone bison won’t be served up on a bun, and that the genetically pure Yellowstone bison will be kept separate from the others on his ranch.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks administrator Ken McDonald tells Brown that giving up bison to Turner’s ranch was not his preferred choice, and that his agency already is getting “a lot of backlash over the whole privatization thing.”

The tribes’ applications were judged insufficient, but officials say they’ll be given first choice the next time bison are available.

Gwen Florio

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9
Nov

Indian, enviro groups sue feds to stop Yellowstone bison slaughter

   Posted by: admin    in bison

A bison cow and her calf in Yellowstone National Park. Bison that stray beyond the park's boundaries can be slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease to cattle. (David Grubbs/Billings Gazette)

A bison cow and her calf in Yellowstone National Park. Bison that stray beyond the park's boundaries can be slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease to cattle. (David Grubbs/Billings Gazette)

A coalition of American Indian and environmental groups are suing the federal government in an effort to stop the killing of bison that migrate beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, asks for the National Park Service and Forest Service to be barred from participating in the slaughter program, write Matthew Brown of the Associated Press, here.

In an effort to prevent a disease carried by bison from spreading to cattle, more than 3,300 bison have been slaughtered in the last decade, by federal agencies working with the state of Montana.

The groups filing the suit say the threat of the disease – brucellosis – has been overstated and that the Park Service and Forest Service are ignoring their responsibility to preserve the bison.

Yellowstone’s 3,000 bison comprise one of the largest concentrations of the animals in the world, Brown writes. Bison once roamed North America by the millions, sustaining many Native American tribes, before being nearly wiped out after the arrival of white people to the region.

During winters, bison range beyond Yellowstone’s borders in search of food. A 2000 agreement between Montana and the federal government allows those animals to be killed to prevent any contact with cattle.

Gwen Florio

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9
Aug

Fort Belknap tribes seek quarantined Yellowstone bison

   Posted by: admin    in bison, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Northern Arapaho

A group of bison block a road in Yellowstone National Park. Bison that leave the park can be slaughtered to prevent the spread of brucellosis. (AP file photo)

A group of bison block a road in Yellowstone National Park. Bison that leave the park can be slaughtered to prevent the spread of brucellosis. (AP file photo)


North-central Montana’s Fort Belknap Indian Reservation wants to take a small herd of bison that have been held in quarantine for nearly four years outside Yellowstone National Park. This story says a similar plan by Wyoming’s Northern Arapaho Tribe fell through.

The nearly 50 animals have been spared from a government program that slaughters most bison leaving the park to prevent the spread of the disease brucellosis.

In addition to the Fort Belknap tribes, Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo and a private landowner near Fargo, N.D., also want the bison. Monday is the deadline for a second round of proposals to take the animals.

“We need to get the animals out in December,” says Ken McDonald, wildlife administrator with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “They’re crowded and the cows are pregnant again and ideally you want to get them out early in their pregnancy.”

Wildlife officials say the animals are living on about 200 acres near Corwin Springs, Mont., and could be slaughtered if no appropriate taker is found.

Here‘s a more extensive version of the story published in the Chicago Tribune.

Gwen Florio

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