And now:Buffalo Folks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
It's an important time for buffalo supporters to take action.... read on:
1. 5 Buffalo Nations volunteers arrested, new legal defense fund opens
2. Horse Butte bison capture trap to open and start sending buffalo to
death any day now!
3. DOL refuses to accept more lenient federal standards for bison in MT
4. West Yellowstone mayor speaks out against the slaughter
5. Send your rock to Governor Racicot!
6. National petition drive to start next week...write
[EMAIL PROTECTED] if you can help...thanks!
______________________________________________
Dear Buffalo Supporters,
Five of our volunteers have been arrested in recent weeks for
interfering with Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) buffalo slaughter
operations. Sue Nackoney locked herself at the top of a 30 foot tripod on
Duck Creek Road and sat there for 6 hours to prevent the shipment of
buffalo to the slaughterhouse. When a local cherry picker truck was called
by the sheriff, the driver refused to help and said that he supported the
action. A truck had to be dispatched from Idaho. Ground supporter Molly
Karp was also arrested for trespassing, even after being told she could
stand near the tripod.
Legal support is being organized by Attorney Chuck Watson, one of
the region's top criminal defense lawyers. Watson has promised to find
pro-bono lawyers for all of our civil disobedience actions, and will
represent Nackoney. He represented Karp at her pre-trial, and all of her
charges were dismissed.
So far, local supporters have generously posted bail, and now we
have opened a new Buffalo Defense Fund for future arrests, and direct
action supplies. If you can send us a non-tax deductible donation, make
checks out to ATTN: Buffalo Defense Fund and send them to us here at Buffalo
Nations.
The DOL has already killed 13 buffalo this winter. With a new
bison trap scheduled to be constructed this week at Horse Butte on prime
winter range, the DOL plans to capture many more buffalo. The road to the
capture facility site has been plowed, and the DOL stated in a recent news
article that they expect to be operating the trap by the end of this week!
Our patrols are monitoring the site for bald eagles (the facility is
planned to be on bald eagle critical nesting habitat), watching the buffalo
in the area, and we will continue to take action so that the DOL knows they
can not keep killing buffalo without having to deal with all of us!
News on the political front....
As if to prove the extent of their irrationality, on January 22,
the DOL stated that they will not accept the federal Animal Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) definition of "low risk" bison (males,
yearlings, calves and non-pregnant females) which could be tolerated in the
state without testing. See the article below for more details...
At least some people are seeing how awful it looks for Montana to
become a buffalo death trap. The West Yellowstone/Hebgen Basin Solid Waste
Board voted unanimously to refuse to allow the DOL to butcher bison
carcasses that are shot in the field at the West Yellowstone dump. West
Yellowstone Mayor Doug Edgerton stated, "We do not need publicity saying
the town of West Yellowstone supports the slaughter of bison. The potential
for national TV exposure with this mess isn't a good idea anyway."
______________________________________________________
Montana Governor Racicot has the power to stop the slaughter, yet
he continues to condone it.
Many told us that his email address bounced back- that's because he closed
down his account! For someone who has been saying that he's willing to
listen to the people (as part of his recent political aspirations), he sure
doesn't seem willing to hear public comment.columnist
Marc Racicot ...move into the modern age and accept email (at least thru
your citizen's advocate)
As Todd Wilkinson, a local syndicated columnist suggested in a Bozeman
chronicle article...
quote
"If you, too, believe that Montana Gov. Racicot's bison policy is based on
stone age logic, send him a rock."
Seems like that is a great suggestion as both his political policies and
his communication skills are stone age.
* Mr. Racicot:
Your bison policies are based on Stone age logic! Don't believe for a
moment that the american public will forget this slaughter of the last wild
buffalo when you run for presidential (or other national) offices.
Please open your mind and ears and listen to what people truly want.
Please move into this century and stop this ridiculous killing of our
national buffalo*
P.S. Every other governor and national official in the United States is
savvy enough to figure out how to have their office accept electronic mail,
Racicot should consider moving into the modern world.
After all- According to Stats' projections on Internet usage in 1998
there were:
33 Million Users in the US and
67 Million Users Worldwide
In 1999, they are projecting:
39 Million Users in the US and
92 Million Users Worldwide.
> Montana Governor Marc Racicot
> Capitol Building
> Helena, Montana 59620
> Phone: (406)444-3111
> Fax: (406)444-4151
maybe a collection of rocks will start a landslide
yeeeeeeeeeeoooooaaahhhhhhahahoooo
also... Carol Yager, a buffalo supporter in Ohio, has offered to send the
governor a rock for everyone who sends her $3 in postage, a piece of paper
with your name and address which she will use to wrap the rock, and a SASE
if you want a receipt for the postage. Write her at 9954 Bannon Court,
Miamisburg, OH
45342.
___________________________________________________________
***************
Articles
There's no defense for slaughter of park bison
by Todd Wilkinson, Bozeman Daily Chronicle January 18, 1999
It's a well-documented psychological phenomenon that when humans become
desperate to defend positions that are ethically indefensible, they resort
to abandoning reason and adopt desperate behavior to justify their actions.
In Montana, there is no better example these days than assertions made by
the state Department of Livestock (DOL) that persecuting Yellowstone bison
with slaughter and hazing is, somehow, in the bison's best interest.
Simply put, the state's controversial bison management policy for
controlling brucellosis is indefensible.
Even Montana's once-zealous federal ally, the U.S. Agriculture Department's
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), suggests that Gov. Marc
Racicot's cowboys are going too far.
Last week's roundup and slaughter of 13 bison near Horse Butte outside
Yellowstone's western boundary included 11 bison bulls, animals which APHIS
says did not need to die. (More than 3,000 park bison have been killed
since the mid 1980s).
Two years ago, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that while the
threat of brucellosis is real, the risk of transmission is small,
especially for bison bulls, yearlings, and cows which already have given
birth.
Before the study was released, APHIS already had shaped a low-risk bison
management strategy which Montana is ignoring.
At Horse Butte, APHIS spokesman Patrick Collins says the approach allows
for bison to remain outside Yellowstone until May, roughly a month before
cattle return to a Forest Service grazing allotment.
Until May, wandering bison can be left alone, so why does the DOL continue
to spend tax dollars on bison hazing? Why has DOL asked that $500,000 be
spent to build and maintain a bison trapping facility at Horse Butte, on
Forest Service land, not far from active bald eagle nests?
With no visual reference, the public could assume that hazing is a benign,
well-intentioned management tool. But recently-recorded video footage of
DOL hazing provides an eye-opening view of the scene.
Shot with portable cameras by Buffalo Nations and packaged by Phil Morton
and Barbara Abramo (video clip at
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo/politico/hazing.html), the tape shows
DOL cowboys on horseback and snowmobiles
driving bison to exhaustion and scattering them across the landscape by
firing cracker shells from shotguns.
It shows the Carhartt-clad wranglers running the animals needlessly up
hills. It shows them forcing bison (and elk) to leap barbed-wire fences. It
shows an injured young bison, struggling to stand up as adult bison bulls
use their heads to nudge the animal from the snow.
It is a sickening, pathetic display of so-called wildlife management that
is not only unnecessary, but destructive. I have given a copy to the
Bozeman Public Library so readers can judge for themselves.
Hazing bison back into Yellowstone in the winter is as logical as duck
hunters trying to haze migratory waterfowl back into Canada. It's a
practice that no self-respecting rancher would employ on his cattle, and
it's a tactic that every student of Biology 101 learns is deadly for
animals trying to survive the winter.
Collins told me that even if a domestic cow were to test positive for
brucellosis, Montana WOULD NOT lose its brucellosis-free status so long as
it took measures to prevent the disease from spreading. APHIS, he noted,
does not have the desire to revoke Montana's brucellosis-free status, a
classification that is necessary to freely ship cattle out of state.
The DOL position, that it is bound to take action against bison because
other states might apply sanctions against Montana beef is just plain fear
mongering. Collins said that whenever another state in the past has
threatened to apply sanctions on Montana cattle, APHIS has successfully
intervened to stop it, and would again if necessary.
Now Congressman Rick Hill and U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns are adding to the
hysteria by tying the purchase of the Royal Teton Ranch which provides
critical wildlife habitat to a number of species near Yellowstone to
completion of a bison management plan which justifies the DOL heavy
handedness.
Claiming to be advocates of good science, Hill and Burns are front-end
loading the public process, holding the interests of free-ranging wildlife
hostage, and turning the interests of the American people into a farce.
Gov. Racicot, just admit your bison policy is wrong. The public may forgive
you. While you're at it, why don't you and the Montana Legislature give
management authority for bison back to the real wildlife professionals in
the state, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department which was
usurped of its power three years ago.
That livestock bureaucrats have been placed in charge of wildlife is a
travesty.
The DOL is acting like George Armstrong Custer did on the day he and
members of the 7th Cavalry arrogantly galloped into an encampment of Sioux
and Cheyenne along the Little Bighorn River.
In the modern battle of Horse Butte, the DOL is not meeting seething
Indians, but a conflagration of incensed citizens who are ashamed of their
civil servants.
This is what a federal official (who isn't employed by the National Park
Service) told me off the record because he doesn't want his name used for
fear of political retaliation.
Look, we're dealing with, at most, potentially 1,000 head of cattle and
dollar for dollar, this bison management policy doesn't make sense. But
we're dealing with political realities, not the realities of what's
rational.
We're dealing with six senators from three states, each one with large
cattle ranching constituencies, who wield tremendous power and are
committed to representing the narrow interests of those groups. From the
perspective of most people involved in this issue, what's happening is bull
---t.
Montana's bison policy is bad for bison, it's bad for Yellowstone, it's bad
for Montana, and ultimately it's bad for ranchers who, rather than
engendering public empathy for the plight of their industry, are now on the
receiving end of public wrath.
If you, too, believe that Montana Gov. Racicot's bison policy is based on
Stone Age logic, send him a rock.
Todd Wilkinson's syndicated column appears in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle
every Monday.
***************************************************************
BOZEMAN CHRONICLE - Scott McMillion, Chronicle Staff Writer
January 24, 1999
Lawyer arranging free legal defense for Buffalo Nations
A prominent Bozeman defense attorney is arranging free
legal defense for members of Buffalo Nations who are arrested
for protesting Montana's bison policy.
And in what could be a hurdle for the Montana Department
of Livestock, a garbage management board in the West
Yellowstone area told the Montana Department of Livestock to
keep its dead bison out of the local dump.
"I'm coordinating legal services for the (protest)
group," said attorney Chuck Watson. "I've rounded up four
lawyers to take cases."
Watson, who is representing one of the protesters
arrested this winter, said he began the work at the request
of friends in Livingston who sympathize with the protesters
and is handling one case himself.
He described the protesters as "intelligent, articulate
and extremely well-mannered. They just struck me as being
credible people with a cause they believe in."
The other lawyers donating their time are Dan Buckley,
John Kaufmann, Brock Albin and Jennifer Bordy, Watson said.
The protesters "have no bone to pick with law enforce-
ment or the public," he said. "They are simply protesting a
policy which is in conflict with their beliefs. Obviously,
it's a strongly held belief that buffalo should not be killed
in that manner for that purpose."
The Montana Department of Livestock kills, captures or
hazes bison every winter because of fears they may spread the
disease brucellosis to cattle. Buffalo Nations points out
there are no cattle in the Hebgen Basin until June.
In what could be a logistics problem for DOL, the West
Yellowstone/Hebgen Basin Solid Waste Board voted unanimously
on Wednesday to refuse a DOL request to process bison
carcasses at the transfer station north of West Yellowstone.
Last winter, the one time that DOL shot bison in the
field, officers hauled the carcasses to the transfer station
so they could be gutted and skinned behind a locked gate
where protesters couldn't get in anybody's face.
Gutting and skinning is usually done by Indian
volunteers who receive the meat, heads and hides of the
bison. Some of the Indians working last year refused to give
their names, saying they were concerned about harassment from
the protesters.
Without a locked gate behind which to do field work,
volunteers could be more likely to have close encounters with
protesters, who in the past have become emotional and called
names when bison were being hauled away or killed.
West Yellowstone Mayor Doug Edgerton, who is chairman of
the board, said the main concern was possible publicity
linking the tourist town with the bison controversy.
"We do not need publicity saying the town of West
Yellowstone supports the slaughter of bison," Edgerton said.
"The potential for national TV exposure with this mess isn't
a good idea anyway."
Having Buffalo Nations in the area increases the odds of
such publicity occurring, he said.
He also said Buffalo Nations has a lot of support in the
area and DOL bears a lot of enmity.
"DOL is not very popular in West Yellowstone," he said.
"There's very, very broad and general disagreement with DOL,
for a variety of reasons."
___________________________________________________________
Our web pages are full of great info; please share the URL with friends and
others who care....
http://www.wildrockies.org/buffalo
we have posted a video clip of last years haze and the DOL's violation of
Bald Eagle habitat at our web site. Please stop by and see it!
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