Wild Buffalo

Citizens across the country are urged to join friends at BFC, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Humane Society of the United States and other wild bison advocates to rattle the cages of two parties responsible for the slaughter of America's last wild buffalo:? Yellowstone National Park and the Church Universal & Triumphant.? Make their phones ring off the hook TODAY in the name of the last wild buffalo!

1. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS # 307-344-2002 (if you can't get through, use 307-344-2012) Tell her that the National Park Service is mandated to protect bison, not slaughter them for the sake of livestock interests.? Tell her that Yellowstone's participation in the slaughter of the last wild buffalo is shameful and unacceptable.? Tell her that the Park should work to secure critical habitat for wild buffalo outside of Park boundaries.? Just speak from your heart for the buffalo and tell her how you feel.

2. CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT (CUT), KATE GORDON, PRESIDENT # 800-245-5445 Tell CUT to finalize the agreement that was started in 1999 and to coexist with wild buffalo.? Remind CUT that they took millions from the American people and that money was exchanged for land to be used by wildlife, including wild buffalo.

Why these calls are critical: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/bisonhunt/bisonhuntvideo/stephens0106.mov

Let's raise our voices together today in defense of the last wild buffalo!? Thank you for participating in national call-in day!? Please spread the word to save this special herd.? For more information visit http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/actionalerts.html.

-EXCERPTED FROM BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN RECENT NEWSLETTER----------------------------- * Update from the Field

Last Friday, Yellowstone National Park sent the last of the 672 captured wild buffalo to slaughter.? The trap - located inside the boundaries of Yellowstone - is empty.? Unfortunately, that's just for now.?? In contrast to the empty trap, the Corwin Springs bison quarantine facility is at full capacity with 100 wild baby buffalo that will never be with their family members again, will be used in a scientific experiment, and half of which will be slaughtered.? All in the name of the Holy Cow.

On Tuesday, BFC volunteers traveled to Bozeman, MT to attend the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee (GYIBC) meeting.? GYIBC representatives are the architects and executioners of the current buffalo slaughter and the ongoing threat to the viability of wildlife in the region. These bureaucrats operate as if the public voice were only a nuisance to be ignored as they carry out their draconian plans.??? Our voices were not ignored on Tuesday.?? Buffalo and elk (elk are now suffering test-and-slaughter programs, too) advocates filled the chairs before the Committee's table.? When the time for public comments came, we spoke in defense of the wild.? We pointed out that brucellosis is a cattle-borne disease and the focus should be on cattle, on the disease, and not on our native wildlife.? Josh showed BFC's video footage from the day the DOL ran the buffalo through the ice on Hebgen Lake, demonstrating just a fraction of what their management scheme looks like in reality.? Silence filled the room.? The footage is that powerful, the truth is that profound, the management scheme that cruel and ugly.

During the meeting, GYIBC representatives from the National Park Service (NPS) proudly revealed that they have been cooperating, protecting livestock interests with their recent capture, slaughter and quarantine of 672 wild Yellowstone buffalo. They said though the trap is empty, there are at least 700 buffalo moving north, underway with their natural migration, heading towards the Park's boundary - towards lands owned by the Church Universal & Triumphant (CUT). With numerous hazing operations underway, they confess capture will begin again soon.  And so will slaughter.

The NPS engages in wild buffalo slaughter for the sake of a handful of privately-owned cows across Yellowstone's northern boundary in Montana.? These cows graze and ruin Yellowstone's rich northern range in the Gardiner Basin, critical winter habitat for wild buffalo, elk, pronghorn, and also a significant migration corridor for these and many other wildlife species. Portions of the wild Yellowstone River - the longest undammed river in the contiguous United States - is being trampled and defiled by the CUT ranch cows. The buffalo are being slaughtered for them. Wild rivers and wild buffalo, it seems, share a common threat.

Please be sure to join us today - and until the slaughter stops - in calling the Park Service and CUT (info above) to urge more habitat for wild buffalo and an end to their slaughter. As Margaret Mead's famous quote reads:? "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

For the Wild, ~Stephany

------------------------------ * No More Baby Buffalo in Quarantine! Send Comments!

One hundred wild baby buffalo have been hazed, captured, separated from their mothers and herd members and sent to prison in the Corwin Springs quarantine facility.? Here they will be raised like livestock, confined and fed hay, used in a government experiment to "create a disease-free herd" of buffalo.? More than half will be slaughtered.

The government has plans to expand their quarantine facility which would enable more wild buffalo calves to suffer the same fate.? It's a joint state-federal plan designed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) and USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).? These agencies are currently accepting comments from you through February 13. Please take action for the wild buffalo calves and express your opposition to this nefarious plan. More information, talking points, and contact information can be found at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/actionalerts.html#bisonquarantine . You can also contact Josh at bfc-advocate@wildrockies.org with questions.? Please send him a copy of your comments!

Visit our video gallery to see what bison quarantine looks like: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/bisonvideogallery.html

The BFC would like to thank PlanetMind Internetworks for hosting our web site on their solar powered server.? 25,000 visitors turned to http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org? in January to learn about the plight of the Yellowstone buffalo and BFC's efforts to bring them lasting protection.? To learn more about Planetmind, please visit: http://www.planetmind.net

Media & Outreach Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT? 59758 406-646-0070 bfc-media@wildrockies.org http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org BFC is the only group working in the field every day to defend the last wild herd of buffalo in America. STOP THE HUNT!? Call Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer: Phone #:? 406-444-3111