USDA ~ WILDLIFE SERVICES ~ BLM



Updated April 9. 2014

 STOP THE NEEDLESS SLAUGHTER 
OF HUNDREDS OF BISON.

Bison are icons of the American West. Slaughtered by the millions a century ago, they were driven to the brink of extinction.
http://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/trs/petition/DOW-YellowstoneBison?origin=ETE_040914_DOWYellowstoneBison_3&utm_source=email&utm_medium=envirota&utm_campaign=DOW-YellowstoneBison&utm_term=20140409&utm_content=_3

Sponsored by: 
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
Yellowstone is home to one of the last genetically pure herds of bison left in North America. Up to 1,600 of this 4,600-strong herd could be killed under this appalling scheme, once again preventing the herd’s expansion and setting back bison restoration to other areas of their historic range.

Bison are icons of the American West. Slaughtered by the millions a century ago, they were driven to the brink of extinction. Today we have an opportunity to reverse this national wildlife tragedy. Tell Governor Steve Bullock to stop the slaughter and let bison roam outside of Yellowstone National Park.
___________________________________



Updated March 19.2014
Thank you #ComfreyJacobs #BFC @running4buffalo

 MAN BLOCKS ROAD 
TO YELLOWSTONE BISON TRAP
 2014 ~ BFC MEDIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG-HVedV61Y&feature=em-subs_digest



___________________________________

 PROTECT YELLOWSTONE'S WILD BISON
VIA SIERRA RISE


Tell Governor Bullock: Protect Yellowstone's historic wild bison -- let them roam!

https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?=display&page=UserAction&id=13125&s_src=914CSRSP06_NSRSR&sp_ref=34479615.5.5512.t.0.2

____________________________________


#savewildbuffalo
#ComfreyJacobs

Wednesday. March 12. 2014
YELLOWSTONE ANNOUNCES END 
TO 2014 SLAUGHTER 
FOLLOWING ONE-MAN BLOCKADE

http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html
Buffalo Field Campaign




March 11, 2014 4:20 pm 

Comfrey Jacobs appeared in U.S. federal court today for his first arraignment after being arrested for blocking the road to Yellowstone National Park’s bison trap on March 6.


Jacobs blocked the road before more wild bison could be loaded onto trailers destined for slaughter facilities. Jacobs handcuffed himself to a hunter orange 55-gallon barrel filled with concrete, and wire-mesh webbing spanning the entrance to the roadway. 

 Photo credit: Deby Dixon/ BFC
Jacobs was charged with three offenses: disorderly conduct, breaking a closure and interfering with a government operation. He was offered a plea bargain: if he plead guilty he would be charged $1,000 in restitution, be placed on unsupervised probation for five year and be banned from Yellowstone National Park for five years.

Jacobs did not accept the plea bargain, as he is awaiting further legal council. There will be a continuation of his arraignment on April 2. If Jacobs chooses to go to trial, he will be tried by a judge and not a jury of his peers.



The goal of Comfrey’s decision to block access to Yellowstone’s bison trap was to prevent more of America’s last wild, migratory bison from being shipped to slaughter. Jacobs stalled slaughter operations for more than two hours.

Comfrey’s action demonstrated strong public opposition to the buffalo slaughter and has drawn an incredible amount of media and public attention to the issue. 



The day following Jacob’s blockade, Yellowstone National Park issued their only press release for this year’s controversial bison operations, announcing that the Stephens Creek bison trap was empty and Yellowstone had no further plans to capture this season.

“My action raised enough public awareness that Yellowstone announced a cease to their operations the following day,” Jacobs said.

This was the first time a citizen exercised civil disobedience at Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek bison trap. Yellowstone National Park initiates a seven-mile public access closure surrounding their Stephens Creek bison trap while highly controversial bison management activities are underway. 


Members of Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) were present to document and lend support.


Comfrey told Buffalo Field Campaign, “I have no regrets. I accept all the consequences of my actions and hope it raises awareness on this issue.”

Since Feb. 7, approximately 450 wild buffalo have been captured in Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek bison trap, located in the Gardiner Basin. 318 were shipped to slaughter or research facilities and some were released. Additionally, more than 270 wild bison have been killed by state and treaty hunters just outside Yellowstone’s boundary in Montana.

Perfectly formed and only six weeks away from being born, a buffalo calf, still attached to the womb, is discarded in his mother’s gut pile. Adult female buffalo are taking the brunt of the killing through hunting and slaughter. Photo credit: Stephany Seay/ BFC

Through hunting, slaughter and consignment to research, more than 600 of America’s last wild, migratory bison have been eliminated this year, marking a decimation of the world’s most significant bison herds.

“Comfrey Jacobs is a hero,” said BFC’s Executive Director Dan Brister. “His actions speak for thousands of people who are upset by the slaughter of America’s last wild buffalo.”

Yellowstone and its partners in the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) have set an arbitrary population target of 3,000-3,500 bison, yet a Yellowstone bison carrying capacity study has determined that the Park can sustain upwards of 6,200 wild bison. Additionally, there are tens of thousands of acres of public lands surrounding Yellowstone that could sustain thousands more.

“The IBMP’s population target is totally driven by politics with no basis in science,” said Stephany Seay, a BFC spokesperson. 

“Wild American bison are ecologically extinct throughout their native range, and while they have no federal protections they certainly warrant Endangered Species Act protections.”

The zero-tolerance bison politics of Montana’s livestock industry are driving the policies that are pushing these significant herds back to the brink of extinction.

To speak out against the IBMP’s slaughter visit the Buffalo Field Campaign’s page and take action. 




Visit EcoWatch’s BIODIVERSITY page for more related news on this topic.
http://ecowatch.com/category/biodiversity/


http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/11/yellowstone-ends-bison-slaughter-following-blockade/


 ____________________________________


Sunday. March 9. 2014

YELLOWSTONE SAYS BISON SLAUGHTERS OVER 
FOR SEASON AFTER ALMOST 
600 KILLED OR REMOVED


http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html





MATTHEW BROWN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
MARCH 7, 2014 05:44 PM


In this Feb. 2, 2014 photo, Yellowstone bison forage for grass in the snow near an icy Madison River in Mont. Yellowstone National Park ended shipments of wild bison to slaughter for the winter on Friday, March 7, 2014 after almost 600 were removed in an effort to shrink the number of animals that cross into Montana during their annual winter migration. (AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, Lloyd Blunk)

BILLINGS, Mont. - Yellowstone National Park ended shipments of wild bison to slaughter for the winter on Friday after almost 600 were removed in an effort to shrink the number of animals that cross into Montana during their annual winter migration.



Park officials said 258 bison were shipped out for slaughter by contract haulers and American Indian tribes that agreed to take the animals for their meat. Hunters killed at least 264 bison through Friday, and 60 more were captured and placed in a U.S. Department of Agriculture animal contraception experiment.



The removals were part of an ongoing effort to reduce Yellowstone's herds to about 3,000 animals under an agreement with Montana officials.

Ranchers outside the park have a low tolerance for bison because of concerns the animals could spread disease and edge out cattle for grass. They've resisted efforts to allow bison to migrate into Montana and roam freely on adjacent public and private lands.

Wildlife advocates contend the capture and slaughter program is unnecessary, citing research that says Yellowstone could support far more bison than the 4,600 counted last summer.

Yellowstone's chief scientist, Dave Hallac, said the slaughter shipments and bison hunt will offset the population growth from bison calves born in the spring. As more die naturally this winter there should be at least a modest overall population decline, he said.

Tribes' participation in the slaughter marked a turnaround from prior years, when American Indians joined with opponents to protest the practice.

The change drew sharp criticism from some wildlife advocates. On Friday, the activist group Buffalo Field Campaign issued a statement accusing the tribes of "providing cover to the shameful actions of the livestock industry and the government agencies."

Jim Stone with the InterTribal Bison Council — which signed an agreement with the park in 2012 to take bison for slaughter — said the council is committed to the animals' conservation. But Stone said the council's leaders decided the only way to alter current practices was from the inside.

"You do it knowing it's a horrible thing to do," he said. "The only way you can change what's going on is if you know what's going on and can control what's going on."

By partnering with federal and state agencies that oversee bison management, Stone said the council is in a better position to push for the population goal to be revisited, for the creation of more bison habitat outside the park and to prevent the killing of young or pregnant animals.

Bison sent to slaughter this winter were captured and temporarily held in corrals along the park's northern border with Montana, near the town of Gardiner. The park refused multiple requests from The Associated Press and others to visit the site.

A protester was arrested along the road leading to the corrals on Thursday after he chained himself to a cement-filled barrel in an attempt to halt the trucks taking bison to slaughter.

Hallac said 500 to 1,000 bison remain near the park boundary, and Friday's announcement does not mean additional bison won't be captured this winter.

In past years, bison captured late in the season — when pregnant females are close to delivery — have been held and released in the spring.

Christian Mackay with the Montana Department of Livestock said bison are allowed to remain in the 70,000-acre Gardiner Basin north of Yellowstone until May 1. But if the animals come into conflict with area residents they will be hazed back toward the park, Mackay said.

© Copyright Times Colonist


____________________________________


RePosted from Exposing the Big Game


TENSION ESCALATES OVER HUNTING 
OF PREGNANT BISON OUTSIDE YELLOWSTONE
Posted on March 8, 2014


http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-usa-yellowstone-bison-idUSBREA261U520140307

By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho Fri Mar 7, 2014

(Reuters) – Angered by the killing of pregnant bison outside Yellowstone National Park, a Native American tribal member tried to deliver a bloody bison heart to Montana’s governor this week, the latest skirmish over the management of the iconic animal.

James St. Goddard, a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana and former member of the tribe’s governing council, said he found the heart where hunters from another tribe discarded it after gutting a bison killed when many females are well along in their pregnancies. At another location, he said, he found several fully formed fetuses cut out of bison cows.

“These are atrocities. Why are they killing these babies? Are we all ignorant of our own Indian culture?” said St. Goddard, who was prevented by authorities from presenting the bison heart to Montana Governor Steve Bullock at his office in Helena.

St. Goddard’s protest, which was not sanctioned by the Blackfeet Nation, highlighted controversy over practices – which have divided some tribal members – in which bison that stray out of Yellowstone have been killed in extended tribal hunting seasons.

The protest against the actions of other tribes came amid broader tensions about the management of the nation’s last band of wild, purebred bison, or buffalo, over concerns by Montana ranchers that the animals could transmit the cattle disease brucellosis to cows that graze near Yellowstone.

The buffalo at Yellowstone, which cuts through parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, are all that remain of the herds that roamed vast grasslands west of the Mississippi until systematic hunting drove them to the edge of extinction in the 19th century. There are more than 4,000 bison at the park, Yellowstone figures show.

Yellowstone’s bison are prized by visitors as a symbol of the American West and by tribes whose religious, cultural and dietary traditions are centered on the animals.

Tribes have asserted hunting rights granted in 19th century treaties for animals that migrate to traditional hunting grounds, and they largely set their own rules on the timing of their seasons. Some tribal hunting seasons extend into March, ahead of a birthing season that can begin in April.

Yet within the tribes, some members have taken issue with the hunts.

The Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho defended its late season hunting as an ancient custom halted over a century ago by the U.S. government amid Western settlement, near-elimination of the herds and forced relocation of tribes to reservations.

Nez Perce Chairman Silas Whitman faulted St. Goddard, whose own tribal government has not opposed the hunts, for criticizing the exercise of off-reservation hunting rights gained by treaty.

“He’s creating controversy where there is no cause. He’s talking as an old enemy, and we’re not going to bend to the will of our enemies,” he said.

Ervin Carlson, the Blackfeet’s buffalo project manager and a member of a federal, state and tribal team that oversees Yellowstone bison, said St. Goddard’s sentiment did not represent the tribe.

“Those tribes have their treaty hunting rights. We wouldn’t step into their concerns,” he said.

FEARS OF CATTLE DISEASE

Licensed hunting of bison that leave Yellowstone’s snow-covered high country to seek food in lower Montana elevations was sanctioned in 1985, then banned after public outcry as hunters lined up outside the park to shoot bison.

Regulated hunts were reinstituted with “fair chase” provisions in 2005 to help keep a burgeoning buffalo population in check. Four tribes have since asserted their own independent hunting rights spelled out in historic treaties.

Montana currently offers limited licenses, decided by lottery, in a season that ends in mid-February, partly to protect heavily pregnant bison, said Pat Flowers, a regional supervisor at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The hunts and a program that sends wandering buffalo to slaughter are in part a response to worries by Montana ranchers that bison will infect nearby cattle with brucellosis, which can cause stillbirths in cows.

About half of Yellowstone’s bison have been exposed to brucellosis, and roughly 300 animals that strayed from the park this winter were sent to slaughterhouses or to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for reproductive experiments. An additional 263 animals have been killed by hunters, most of them tribal hunters, in Montana.

Conflicts over the way bison are managed escalated further on Thursday with the arrest of a man who protested their killing by blocking a road to a park facility where wayward bison are penned, Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said.

The protest by a man who anchored himself to a 55-gallon drum was celebrated by Buffalo Field Campaign, which opposes the hunts and slaughter, and sends members into Yellowstone to monitor the wintering herd.

In a sign that not all tribal members agree with their governments, James Holt, a Nez Perce member who sits on the Buffalo Field Campaign board, said it was disheartening to see tribes support the activities.

“Buffalo were made wild and free and should remain so. It is painful to watch these tribal entities take such an approach to what should be the strongest advocacy and voice of protection,” Holt said in a statement.

Among tribes with hunting rights, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana restricts its season to the end of January to avoid killing pregnant bison cows, which calve in spring, Tom McDonald, the tribes’ wildlife agency manager, said.

“Our regulation is based on the votes of the people, who don’t want big-game animals harvested past the end of January because they’re pregnant. But we don’t point fingers at other tribes for their regulations,” he said.

Carl Scheeler, wildlife program manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, said the reality of gutting a two-ton animal means fetuses may be discarded from pregnant bison killed in a tribal hunting season that stretches to mid-March.

“There’s a certain level of public sensitivity to viewing large and persistent gut piles, and hunters are directed to move them out of view to the extent that’s possible,” he said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Douglas Royalty)

Photo (c) Jim Robertson


http://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/tension-escalates-over-hunting-of-pregnant-bison-outside-yellowstone/


____________________________________

Nothing short of total respect for you, Comfrey Jacobs!
Thank you for raising awareness for the wild buffalo in Yellowstone. 

 And for all of the rest of us? 
I hope to hell we can at the very least carry out the actions that Buffalo Field Campaign has made possible for us & sign the two petitions below that. 
Just scroll down to the bottom of this page and do it! 
Thank you ~Heidi
http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html
PROTESTER BLOCKS BISON SLAUGHTER VANS IN YELLOWSTONE


Protester Comfrey Jacobs, 20, chained himself to a concrete-filled barrel in the middle of the Stephens Creek Road leading to the bison capture facility inside Yellowstone National Park on March 6, 2014.

 Bison protest : Courtesy Deby Dixon









Posted: Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:53 am

LAURA LUNDQUIST, Chronicle Staff Writer 

Trailers hauling wild bison out of Yellowstone National Park were delayed a few hours Thursday morning when a man chained himself to a 50-gallon drum in the road leading to the bison capture facility.
Early Thursday morning, Comfrey Jacobs, 20, sat down in the middle of the dirt road leading to the Stephens Creek bison trap near Gardiner. 
He had donned ski goggles and had positioned banners nearby saying “Hunters for Bison Habitat” and “Road Closed.”

Then he locked his left arm inside a barrel filled with concrete and waited for park employees or law enforcement to show up.
Park managers have closed the road to public access for several weeks while the bison capture is underway.

Jacobs had been in the Gardiner area for several weeks and finally decided to use civil disobedience tactics to stop the bison from being hauled to processing plants, according to a Buffalo Field Campaign news release.
Yellowstone National Park has operated the Stephens Creek bison trap for several weeks and has captured around 450 bison.

The park is conducting the capture and slaughter operation to reduce the population of bison that must be confined to the park for much of the year.

The Interagency Bison Management Plan cites a target number of 3,000 bison in the park while the population as of the end of the year was more than 4,200.

Meanwhile, members of three regional tribes are still participating in a hunt of bison that roam outside the park. Both tribal and Montana hunters have killed around 250 bison.

It took park law enforcement officers until 10 a.m. to free Jacobs. He was arrested and taken to Mammoth where he was charged with three federal offenses and released.
“I have taken these drastic actions because I feel it is my civil duty as an American citizen to protect this national treasure,” Jacobs said in the release. “The National Park Service has neglected their duty as stewards, to respect public interests and preserve and protect the entirety of the Yellowstone ecosystem. 
I’m giving up some of my freedoms in hopes of re-establishing a free-roaming herd of buffalo in their traditional habitat.”

© 2014 Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/wildlife/article_2a9fe2fc-a558-11e3-8393-001a4bcf887a.html
____________________________________
#savewildbuffalo
Press Release - 3/6/14
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
March 6, 2014
Thank you Buffalo Field Campaign
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/index.html


MAN BLOCKS ROAD 
TO YELLOWSTONE BISON TRAP
Citizen Sacrifices Self to Draw Attention to, and Stop Wild Bison Slaughter
http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html


http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press1314/pressreleases1314/030614.html
Contacts:
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-646-0071
Mike Mease, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-640-0109

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, GARDINER BASIN, MT:
This morning, Comfrey Jacobs, a twenty-year old citizen concerned for wild bison, placed life, limb and freedom on the line by blocking the access road to Yellowstone National Park's Stephens Creek bison trap in hopes of preventing more of America's last wild, migratory bison -- the most important bison populations in the world -- from being shipped to slaughter.

To date, approximately 450 wild buffalo have been captured in Yellowstone National Park's Stephens Creek bison trap, located in the Gardiner Basin. Most of the buffalo have been and will be shipped to slaughter, while some are going to government research facilities. To date, more than 200 bison have been shipped to slaughter and 250 more have been killed by hunters.

Mr. Jacobs spent a number of weeks in the Gardiner Basin, where bison capture and slaughter operations and intense hunting have been taking place.

"During my time in Gardiner," said Jacobs, "I was feeling helpless as I watched wild buffalo lured and trapped, fed hay like livestock, tortured with sorting and testing, and eventually crammed into livestock trailers headed for slaughter facilities, while simultaneously bison were being hunted just outside the Park boundary."

Jacobs blocked the road to prevent livestock trailers from accessing the trap before more wild bison could be loaded onto trailers destined for slaughter facilities. He handcuffed himself to a hunter orange 55-gallon barrel filled with concrete, and wire-mesh webbing spanning the entrance to the roadway, which is closed to public access.

"My goal is to stop these trailers from getting to the trap so they cannot load more bison and transport them to slaughter," Jacobs said. "My intent is to not unduly cause these buffalo any more stress or harm than they are currently being subjected to in the trap, and to ultimately get Yellowstone to set them free."

This is the first time a citizen has exercised civil disobedience at Yellowstone's Stephens Creek bison trap. Yellowstone National Park initiates a 7-mile public access closure surrounding their Stephens Creek bison trap while highly controversial bison management activities are underway.

Jacobs state that, "Yellowstone National Park's public access closure around the Stephens Creek facility is an obscene and blatantly unconstitutional limitation of public oversight and accountability of our government agencies during bison management actions."

Mr. Jacobs, Buffalo Field Campaign, other organizations and media outlets have requested numerous times that Yellowstone conduct media tours of the facility, but these requests have been ignored. Thousands of people have written and called Yellowstone urging them to cease capture and slaughter operations. Yellowstone National Park has also been extremely secretive: Superintendent Dan Wenk is the first Yellowstone superintendent to prevent his staff from disclosing information to the public. Yellowstone has not issued a single press release during this year's capture and slaughter operations, and they are refusing to tell the public how many wild bison they have captured so far, and are only giving delayed information on the number, age and sex of bison that have already been transported to slaughter.

Jacobs said he is aware of the repercussions of his actions, bur felt strongly that he needed to draw attention to what Yellowstone National Park is doing so that they are held accountable for their direct participation in bison mismanagement, which has lead to the decimation of America's last wild bison populations.

"I have taken these drastic actions because I feel it is my civil duty as an American citizen to protect this national treasure," Jacobs said. "The National Park Service has neglected their duty as stewards, to respect public interests and preserve and protect the entirety of the Yellowstone ecosystem. I'm giving up some of my freedoms in hopes of re-establishing a free-roaming heard of bufflo in their traditional habitat."

Comfrey Jacobs's blockade included banners with the messages "Hunters for Bison Habitat," and "Road Closed." Jacobs also included a list of demands for Yellowstone National Park:
1. The immediate halt to all current and future capture and slaughter management actions and the release of all currently captive buffalo.
2. Yellowstone National Park's withdrawal from the Interagency Bison Management Plan, due to its ineffectiveness in maintaining a wild, free-roaming bison population and not meeting the public's, or the buffalo's best interests. 
3. So long as the Stephens Creek facility continues to be used to capture, torture and ship wild bison to slaughter and research facilities, there needs to be public oversight and media access at all times, to keep the Park Service accountable for its actions.

Wild bison are currently managed under the highly controversial state, federal and tribal Interagency Bison Management Plan, which is heavily influenced by Montana's livestock industry. The IBMP allows for hazing (chasing) of bison out for their native Montana, a lengthy late-season harvest, and capture for slaughter and research. American citizens and others world-wide have have largely opposed all the actions carried out under the IBMP. IBMP-affiliated tribal partners, including the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), the InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), and the Nez Perce tribe have signed slaughter agreements with Yellowstone. The CKST and ITBC have been actively shipping wild bison from Yellowstone to tribal slaughter facilities. USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service is taking wild bison from Yellowstone's trap to research facilities to use them in experiments with the chemical pesticide birth control GonaCon. Under the IBMP, more than 4,650 wild bison have been senselessly killed or otherwise eliminated from these last wild populations.

The wild bison of Yellowstone are the most significant bison populations in the world, the last continuously wild bison to exist in their native habitat since prehistoric times. They are the direct descendants to the tens of millions that once thundered across North America. Currently, wild, migratory bison are ecologically extinct throughout their historic range with fewer than 4,200 existing in and around Yellowstone and, temporarily, in Montana. They are free of cattle genes and the only bison to hold their identity as a wildlife species. North America's largest land mammal, wild bison are a keystone species critical to the health and integrity of grasslands and prairie ecosystems.

The zero-tolerance bison politics of Montana's livestock industry are driving the policies that are pushing these significant herds back to the brink of extinction.

Yellowstone and its IBMP partners have set an arbitrary population target of 3,000-3,500 bison, yet a Yellowstone bison carrying capacity study has determined that the Park can sustain upwards of 6,200 wild bison. Additionally, there are tens of thousands of acres of public lands surrounding Yellowstone that could sustain thousands more.

"I belive year-round habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Montana is the solution for wild bison population management, not genetically damaging and limiting the herds through slaughter or constant harassment and abuse through hazing operations," Jacobs said.

"We would like to thank Comfrey Jacobs for taking an action that our organization cannot," said Stephany Seay, a spokesperson for Buffalo Field Campaign. "We have always strongly opposed the slaughter and abuse of wild buffalo and applaud non-violent civil disobedience when other means of public participation have been exhausted and ignored. BFC shares Mr. Jacobs' goals for wild, migratory buffalo populations that are respected and valued as native wildlife and free to roam and flourish beyond Yellowstone's borders, in Montana, and beyond. We hope his courageous actions inspire other patriotic Americans to stand up tor this iconic and important National Treasure."

Video and still footage available upon request.

Buffalo Field Campaign is a non-profit public interest organization founded in 1997 to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild bison, protect the natural habitat of wild free-roaming bison and other native wildlife, and to work with people of all Nations to honor the sacredness of wild bison. BFC has its headquarters in West Yellowstone, Montana, and is supported by volunteers and participants around the world who value America’s native wildlife and the ecosystems upon which they depend.




____________________________________

MONTANA BISON HARVEST A 'SHAMEFUL DISGRACE'


Please take action to protest.
All information we have 
to #savewildbuffalo is below the news.
Thank you.

http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html





Todd Wilkinson
Sothebys/Huff - In Story Quarter #2 - 50k
POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 12:15 AM
The New West / By Todd Wilkinson 
This is part 6 of a series on wildlife disease management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. —Ed.

“It’s not supposed to be like this,” James St. Goddard said. “What’s happening with these Yellowstone buffalo isn’t ethical harvest. In my opinion, it’s a shameful disgrace, and we Indian people are being used as accomplices.”
St. Goddard, a cultural chief and member of the Blackfeet Nation Tribal Council, could become the next tribal chairman in July.
Last week he drove across Montana to protest the late-winter killing of Yellowstone National Park bison. The killing was being done by members of the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Shoshone-Bannock and Salish-Kootenai tribes, exercising 19th-century treaty rights.
The Blackfeet are not participating, he said, because they don’t want blood on their hands.

St. Goddard couldn’t contain his emotion Monday as he surveyed the windswept landscape just north of Yellowstone near Gardiner. Today it’s a view littered with hundreds of gut piles from bison — part of the most famous buffalo herd in America — that have died this winter along a political, cultural and geographical firing line.

Some of the remains, he pointed out, are those of pregnant bison cows with fully-formed calves protruding from discarded wombs.

Just as in the winter of 2013, Yellowstone bison have been met with a hail of bullets from tribal members. Despite regulations, shooting has been conducted haphazardly from roadways at all hours of the day.
Several animals, wounded but not felled cleanly by native hunters, have hobbled back into the park only to drop dead in front of startled Yellowstone visitors and staff.

St. Goddard got into a verbal tussle this week with the Nez Perce. The scene was documented by activists from the Buffalo Field Campaign.

“I told them what they’re doing is wrong and barbaric,” St. Goddard said. “I find it extremely offensive that they’re gunning down bison mothers with babies in their bellies. This isn’t an honorable hunt. This isn’t how you treat a sacred animal.”

Encouraging Native Americans to harvest bison coming out of the park is another controversial aspect of the 14-year-old Interagency Bison Management Plan.
Critics like conservationist Kathryn QannaYahu say the plan is based largely on unfounded pronouncements made by livestock interests about alleged risks of brucellosis transmission from park bison to domestic cattle.

The Montana Department of Livestock and the state’s chief veterinarian, Dr. Martin Zaluski, continue to force Yellowstone to participate in a bison management program that park employees say is repugnant.

Despite scientific data showing Yellowstone bison pose an extremely slight risk of passing brucellosis to cattle, Zaluski has taken a hard line against allowing them to roam outside the park.

He recently restated his desire to have Yellowstone bison hunted and killed inside the national park itself — a proposal roundly rejected by Yellowstone Superintendant Dan Wenk and the park’s chief scientist, David Hallac.

The Department of Livestock is coming under increasing pressure to justify its bison policy, given that there has never been a documented case of park bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle. Meanwhile, there are several instances of beef cows contracting the disease from contact with elk in the Yellowstone region.
St. Goddard says Native Americans have been enlisted to carry out bison killing because state livestock and wildlife departments want to avoid blame.

An agreement between Yellowstone and the Intertribal Buffalo Council, which represents tribes, acknowledges that killing bison and shipping hundreds more to slaughterhouses “is not effective at reducing the prevalence of brucellosis in the population.”

If park bison aren’t being destroyed to protect private cattle herds from disease, what’s the motivation? It’s about cultural intolerance for bison and it warrants wider public scrutiny, says QannaYahu, who operates the wildlife, brucellosis watchdog site (EMWH.org).
I have spoken with many Yellowstone employees who say they are disgusted the park is taking part in the slaughter of wildlife. Behind the scenes, support is building for a major rewrite of the Interagency Bison Management Plan.

“I’m not against having Indians involved with respectful harvesting of bison to provide sustenance for the people or helping to promote ecosystem health,” St. Goddard said. “But we are being used to do the dirty work of federal and state government officials that have no respect for buffalo. They’re taking advantage of us, and that makes me mad.”

Todd Wilkinson, author of “Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet,” writes his column for the News&Guide every week.



http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/opinion/columnists/the_new_west_todd_wilkinson/mont-bison-harvest-a-shameful-disgrace/article_01d3ef67-c02b-50fa-bb86-18642418fd73.html#.UxfAP966EhY.twitter
____________________________________

#savewildbuffalo

http://noanimalsuffering.blogspot.com/p/httpamericanherds.html
Actions you can take to #savewildbuffalo
____________________________________

 Follow @running4buffalo on Twitter
Running the 2014 Boston Marathon to raise awareness for the last wild buffalo


Check out running for buffalo on wordpress:
 runningforthebuffalo.wordpress.com

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Check out Buffalo Field Campaign :
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/



Follow BFC on Twitter
Buffalo Field Campgn @BFC_WildBison

 Working in the field and on the policy front to permanently protect America's last wild buffalo.

 HELP BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN:
TAKE ACTION TO STOP THE SLAUGHTER!

 1.
 CONTACT 
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:

Please sign and share:
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/2426/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12829 

 Please call Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk at (307) 344-2002, and also send him a letter to urge him to stop the 2014 buffalo slaughter that is currently underway and to fully disclose to the public what is going on at Yellowstone's Stephens Creek buffalo trap.

 2.

CONTACT TRIBAL GOVERNMENT: 
 
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/2426/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12829
Contact the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes and urge them to stop taking buffalo to slaughter.

 3.

 CONTACT TRIBAL CORPORATION: 


http://org.salsalabs.com/o/2426/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15141
Contact the InterTribal Buffalo Council board of directors and member tribes and urge them to end the betrayal and stop the slaughter!

 4.

 CONTACT MONTANA GOVERNMENT:

Please sign and share: 
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/2426/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13718
Contact Montana Governor Steve Bullock and urge him to champion wild buffalo in Montana by increasing access to habitat and ending the Montana Department of Livestock's authority over wild buffalo!

 5.

 Visit our  page to contact other decision-makers who need to hear from you and please share the links to these take action alerts on Facebook and other social media outlets. And please consider joining us on the front lines. See below for details. Thank you!


http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/takeaction.html


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Please sign and share:
The National Wildlife Foundation petition:
HELP BISON FREELY ROAM

https://online.nwf.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1867

 Right now, bison in Yellowstone National Park are hazed, corralled and slaughtered when they migrate out of park boundaries looking for food during the snowy, harsh winter months.

 But a new plan that would help bison by opening more than 400,000 acres of public lands outside of Yellowstone for the wild bison to roam freely year-round is currently being proposed.

 It is up to us to protect bison from hazing and slaughter by urging Montana Governor Bullock to support expanded habitat for Yellowstone bison and win approval for the critical plan to ensure bison get more room to roam safely.

 Help provide Yellowstone bison more room to safely roam by editing and sending a message to Governor Bullock, urging him to support the plan that gives bison more room to roam.
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 Please sign and share:
 Defenders of Wildlife /Take Part petition

 STOP THE NEEDLESS SLAUGHTER OF HUNDREDS OF BISON


http://takeaction.takepart.com/actions/stop-the-needless-slaughter-of-hundreds-of-bison?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-02-25


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#savewildbuffalo


Boycott Beef folks! At least until these Bison Slaughters stop.
Here is all of the background information
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 Headline image courtesy: BISON by ThijsFr on flickr.com ______________________________________










TAKE A STAND 
FOR CALIFORNIA MUSTANGS 
IN MASSACRE LAKES HMA


The wild horse herd in the Massacre Lakes Herd Management Area (HMA) has not been touched by man or helicopter for 25 years. As such it is a valuable population for both research and preservation. Yet the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to reduce the Massacre Lakes herd from the current estimated 186 animals down to just 25 animals, while allowing the annul equivalent of 141 cow/calf pairs to graze the same area. This is a rare opportunity for the public to weigh in on a BLM action that will set the allowable wild horse population number AND the livestock grazing level. Thanks to the work of wild horse advocate Carla Bowers, the BLM has included an alternative for a more equitable distribution of forage between wild horses and livestock. Now is the time for the public to weigh in on the side of the mustangs! 

Photo credit: wildhorsepreservation.org 


SAVE THE WILD MUSTANGS

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