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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Emergency
Rule Sought to Stop Park Service Slaughter of Wild Bison in
Yellowstone National Park
Washington, D.C. (April 10, 2008) -
A diverse coalition of tribal, conservation, hunting, animal welfare
and wildlife groups, an outfitting business, and concerned citizens
from Montana and South Dakota, have filed an emergency
rule making petition with the U.S. Department of the Interior
seeking to stop the National Park Service from slaughtering wild
bison inhabiting Yellowstone National Park and adjoining lands on
the Gallatin National Forest in Montana.
Yellowstone is home to America's only wild bison who have
continuously occupied their native habitat.
This winter, Yellowstone National Park and the State of Montana have
engaged in an unprecedented slaughter or removal of over 1,550 bison
that have migrated to their winter range near and beyond park
borders. One-third of the entire bison herd has been wiped out with
1,284 captured and shipped to slaughterhouses on order from
officials in the National Park Service and the Montana Department of
Livestock under Governor Brian Schweitzer.
"The Park Service's current course is to slaughter bison without
concern as to the damage being done to the genetic diversity of the
distinct bison populations in Yellowstone," explains D.J. Schubert,
a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. "The
petition raises a red flag that unprecedented, large scale
slaughtering of wild bison is jeopardizing their long term
survival."
The petition presents scientific evidence of at least two
genetically distinct bison populations inhabiting the park. The
National Park Service currently manages the bison in the park
without consideration of this evidence.
To ensure bison's long-term survival and health, the National Park
Service must sustain a minimum of 2,000 bison in each distinct bison
population. That number would ensure that genetic diversity is
conserved - allowing bison to naturally evolve and adapt to a
changing environment, and retain important survival behaviors like
natural migration and selection.
The coalition says the National Park Service has ignored this
science and failed to adapt its bison management plan to ensure the
long-term survival of each distinct bison population.
The petition, submitted under the authority of the Administrative
Procedures Act, asks Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to
publish an emergency rule prohibiting the National Park Service from
killing or participating in the killing of bison, or otherwise
permanently removing bison from either population, when the
population is reduced to 2,000 or fewer bison. Both bison
populations have been reduced to fewer than 2,000 animals this
winter.
"The Park Service, at the direction of Montana's livestock
interests, is slaughtering one of America's most iconic wildlife
species, endangering the only continuously wild, free-roaming bison
population left in the U.S.," states Michael Mease, President and
Co-founder of the Buffalo Field Campaign. "The public must rise up
and put an end to the livestock industry dictating control over
America's last wild bison herds."
The diverse coalition of signatories to the petition includes:
Animal Welfare Institute, Buffalo Field Campaign, GravelBar, Natural
Resources Defense Council, American Buffalo Foundation, Western
Watersheds Project, Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous
Development, Horse Butte Neighbors of Buffalo, Big Wild Adventures,
Gallatin Wildlife Association, American Indian Law Alliance, The
Humane Society of the United States, WildEarth Guardians, Ms. Karrie
Taggart, Ms. Barb Abramo, Mr. George Nell, and Ms. Rosalie Little
Thunder.
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The Animal Welfare
Institute, headquartered in Washington, DC, is one of the nation's
oldest animal welfare organizations dedicated to reducing the sum
total of pain and fear inflicted on animals by humans. Buffalo Field
Campaign, based in West Yellowstone Montana, is the only
organization that works 365 days a year to protect Yellowstone
bison.
CONTACT:
D.J. Schubert, Animal
Welfare Institute, (609) 334-1378
Darrell Geist, Buffalo
Field Campaign, (406) 646-0070
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