montana Bison?

[300stw]

the billings paper running an article about herding 300-600 bison up and slaughtering them,,

why are sport hunters not allowed to take more of these bison?
where do we sign up to get some bison meat.. there must be truck loads of meat from that many bison....

 

[Carrion Carrier]

It goes to tribes, per legal agreement. They are the ones who do the slaughtering.

Why hunters aren't allowed to take more is beyond me. My guess is that they aren't coming out of the park in sufficient numbers and the state and feds have an agreement that the herd stay between 3500-4000 animals.

 

[roadhunter]

http://news.yahoo.com/yellowstone-b...xdWM2BHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDM1OF8x

Yellowstone administrators plan to slaughter up to 600 bison this winter if harsh weather conditions inside the 2.2-million-acre park spur a large migration of the animals to lower elevations in Montana. It's part of a multiyear plan to reduce the population from an estimated 4,600 animals to about 3,000, under an agreement between federal and state officials signed in 2000.

 

[katqanna]

Due to the APHIS/DOL agenda of eradication of brucellosis in wildlife (their goal was 1998), when they believed it was bison transmitting (assumption that bovine to bovine was more logical than cattle to elk and back again), they were pressuring the 3 GYA states, by threatening them with a loss of their brucellosis class free status if the states did not capitulate. MT's governor Marc Rosicot wrote a letter to Mountain West News, March 20, 1997, declared that the shooting was a "tragedy" but that the State of Montana had no choice because APHIS has "threatened to revoke Montana's hard-won brucellosis free status if we allow one such diseased creature into the state to potentially infect livestock."

Racicot sued APHIS and NPS, as a result, what we have is the shotgun wedding Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). Part of that plan, through APHIS and DOL was to limit the number of bison the YNP could have, so they wouldnt migrate into MT. Based on the science, the habitat is capable of supporting more bison, but APHIS /DOL want eradication and minimum number is what forces the YNP to this capturing contract with the Tribes.

Years ago, according to the minutes of the Wyoming Brucellosis Coordination Team and a book documenting the bison wars, APHIS, seeing that the socially unacceptable slaughters gave them a black eye, began focusing on utilizing hunters, the tribes, vaccination and sterilization to achieve their objective. So the tribes were brought into the IBMP and these contracts created. The ITBC (Inter Tribal Buffalo Council) receives grants from USDA for the marketing of bison. The ITBC went on a tour to develop export partners in Europe and Asia. The slaughter plant in ND was built according to EU specifications for the European exports. This is commercialization of the YNP bison, not "feeding our people and culture" mentioned in the contract. The ITBC even sells bison meat to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's Mitsitam Cafe in Washington, D.C.

What the Native American Nations do is their business, but because of this APHIS/DOL agenda, there is more money to be made in bison slaughter, than in allowing them into Montana. The Native Americans profit on their slaughter. The DOL, according to 81-2-120, gets to sell the live negatives and the carcasses (i) sold to help defray the costs that the department incurs in building, maintaining, and operating necessary facilities related to the capture, testing, quarantine, or vaccination of the wild buffalo or wild bison; (e) Proceeds from the sale of live, brucellosis-free, vaccinated wild buffalo or wild bison must be deposited in the state special revenue fund to the credit of the department. (b) may sell a wild buffalo or wild bison carcass to help defray expenses of the department. If the carcass is sold in this manner, the department shall deposit any revenue derived from the sale of the wild buffalo or wild bison carcass to the state special revenue fund to the credit of the department.

The interesting thing is, the bulk of these bison management activities are paid for by FWP. And APHIS illegally funnels money to the DOL through a dead agency, for eradication of brucellosis in wildlife. When I requested a copy of what it was spent on from DOL, they listed all bison management activities for the 2009 report. So DOL makes money from several directions on the slaughter of antibody positive bison, the sale of negatives and though FWP pays the bulk of bison management costs, Montanans are being deprived of bison on public lands and thereby hunting opportunities, because of the APHIS/DOL objectives of eradication.