CNN broadcast this segment last night on Anderson Cooper’s program.

Where the buffalo roam — and die

KXMC is reporting that 15,000 pounds of Yellowstone bison meat was SOLD to the Montana Food Bank Network for 42¢ per pound. I have been personally told many times by Yellowstone officials and read in numerous press releases by MDoL that the meat is DONATED to food banks and tribal groups. There is a big difference between donating the meat and selling the meat.

Read it here:
Montana Food Bank network buys bison meat

Update: Another story is out:

Billings Food Bank buys 3,200 pounds of meat at 55 cents per pound

This photo was taken on Friday afternoon near West Yellowstone along the road to 7-Mile Bridge.

According to a local paper, this calf was “euthanized” by the Park Service. So much for natural regulation.

People claimed to have seen the calf nursing but the Park Service killed the calf presumably because the two were on the road and hadn’t gone to where there was grass which is in short supply this time of year.

Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
April 24, 2008
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View BFC Video Footage:
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

* NEW VIDEO! To Protect the Wild Bison
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/aboutus/documentaries.html
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Make a Secure Online Donation to BFC:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=1807
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Why are they killing the last wild buffalo?
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/issueinbrief.html
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* NEW! Buffalo Field Campaign Blog
http://www.blog.buffalofieldcampaign.org
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Receive BFC’s updates or press releases.
Send your email address to bfc-media@wildrockies.org with “sub
updates” or “sub press release” in the subject line.
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AMERICAN BISON ELIMINATED from the last wild population in the U.S.
2007-2008 Total: 1,601
2007-2008 Slaughter: 1,435
2007-2008 Hunt: 166
2007-2008 Quarantine: 112

Total Since 2000: 3,666*
*includes lethal government action, quarantine, hunts
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In this issue:
* LAST CHANCE! Order Buffalo-Friendly Mother’s Day Cards Now!
* Update from the Field
* In Honor of Phil Morton ~ Celebrating a Buffalo Warrior’s Earth Day Birthday
* GoodSearch: Help BFC Every Time You Search the Internet
* Photo of the Week
* Last Words

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Dear Friend of the Buffalo,

A diverse coalition of tribal, conservation, hunting, animal welfare and wildlife groups, an outfitting business, and concerned citizens 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.

This winter, Yellowstone National Park and the State of Montana have engaged in an unprecedented slaughter or removal of more than 1,700 bison that have migrated to their winter range near and beyond park borders.

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Media stories in the last couple of days.
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From: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-16004.htm

This document is titled “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 90-Day Finding on a Petition To List the Yellowstone National Park Bison Herd as Endangered”

It was issued in the Federal Register by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on August 15, 2007 which was 3017 days longer than was legal under the 90-day requirement of the Endangered Species Act.

“Mr. James Horsley of Moorhead, Minnesota, filed a petition dated January 5, 1999, with the Secretary of the Interior to list the “herd of buffalo at the Yellowstone National Park” “because it is endangered in a significant portion of its range.” Mr. Horsley requested that the Service list the herd as a subspecies or “distinct population group,” and to designate critical habitat in and adjacent to YNP. The Service received the petition on February 11, 1999. Action on this petition has been precluded until now because of higher priority listing actions. This finding does not consider critical habitat, which would only arise with a positive 12-month finding.”

You can read Mr. Horsley’s handwritten ESA petition here:
http://www.fws.gov/mountain%2Dprairie/species/mammals/yellowstonebison/petition.pdf

More information can be found here:
http://www.fws.gov/mountain%2Dprairie/species/mammals/yellowstonebison/

And there is even more under the fold:

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2,400 Yellowstone bison dead Jackson Hole News and Guide.

According to the article 1,700 Yellowstone buffalo have been killed in the greatest slaughter since the 19th Century but the winter kill has taken many more and there is a while until green up starts in the Park. The number 2,300 is significant in the Interagency Bison Management Plan because it is a threshold below which management activities have to change to non-lethal management. Unfortunately non-lethal management still includes hazing which can still kill buffalo in their weakened state.

“There’s still a lot of snow. We are days away [from when plants will emerge] at this point. It’s not imminent, but it’s coming soon” according to Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash.

The Park estimates that there are only 2,300 buffalo left alive but many of them are still struggling and may yet die. This is a dangerously low population for a species to be in and there is much conversation recently of the Endangered Species Act.

These bulls were seen in the Upper Lamar Valley sleeping on the road on April 11, 2008.

Below is a long list of articles you can read about the Yellowstone Buffalo.
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* NEWS RELEASE *

“HISTORIC” DEAL WITH CHURCH BAD FOR WILD BISON
Millions Spent But Slaughter Will Continue

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 17, 2008
Press Contacts:
Mike Mease, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-531-9284, mease@wildrockies.org
Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign, 406-646-0070, bfc-media@wildrockies.org

(GARDINER, MT) - Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis are expected to make an “historic announcement” today regarding the Interagency Bison Management Plan, which this year alone has been responsible for the deaths of over 1,600 wild American bison, the last continuously wild population in the United States.

“The only historic announcement that Schweitzer and Lewis could possibly make is that they’ve killed more wild American buffalo than anyone since the 1800s,” said Buffalo Field Campaign co-founder Mike Mease.

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