In the late 1800s, in an attempt to starve out the remaining Plains Indians tribes and force them onto reservations, the United States Government ordered the rampant slaughter of thousands of buffalo. The Plains were littered with the carcasses of animals that had been left to rot their valuable meat and hides, left for the vultures. Today, the wild buffalo are again threatened by extinction, and again through the narrow sighted vision of the government and those that settled on the plains.
The largest wild herd of buffalo resides in Yellowstone National Park, Montana. These buffalo are the descendants of the few that managed to survive the slaughter of the 1800s. It is estimated that from 10% to 25% of these buffalo may be carriers of the disease brucellosis, which causes abortion of calves in buffalo, cattle, elk, and some other animals. While this disease is contagious, it can be prevented in cattle by a vaccination, which costs approximately six dollars per head of livestock.
In 1955, Montana's livestock industry obtained a "Brucellosis Free" certification from the livestock industry. This means that all herds of cattle in Montana are certified to be free from brucellosis, and thus can be shipped to any state in the US, and exported without any testing for verification. This certification was to be the beginning of the slaughter of the buffalo of Yellowstone. Herds of buffalo that left the perimeters of the park to seek food often grazed in areas that are considered open range and that are leased by cattlemen during the summer. The simple fact that the buffalo, which MIGHT be carriers of brucellosis, were using the same lands as the "certified" cattle led to the shooting and slaughter of buffalo that had left the park.
In 1997, the Montana Division of Livestock killed 1,084 buffalo (one-third of the existing herd). These animals were then sold by auction and the proceeds were kept by the DOL. None of the animals were tested for brucellosis prior to being killed, but were killed on the assumption that they could be carriers and that they were no longer inside of the national park boundaries. Due to the severe winter conditions, several hundred buffalo also died within the park due to starvation.
Cattle and bison have been allowed to graze together in Grand Teton National Park for the last 40 years, and there has never been one case of infection of the cattle by the buffalo. In fact, the six documented cases of cattle infection have come not from buffalo, but from the elk that also range with the cattle. Elk have also been responsible for passing the disease to humans when they were slaughtered after a hunt. There have been NO attempts to control the elk population, which is a multi-million dollar hunting industry in Montana.
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