Judge Charles Lovell Permits Bison Slaughter In Yellowstone

BILLINGS, Mont. — A judge says he will not stop the slaughter of potentially hundreds of wild bison from Yellowstone National Park that had attempted to migrate into Montana.

U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell in Helena issued a 72-page ruling Monday in which he denied a request from wildlife advocates to stop the slaughter.

More than 500 bison are being held in corrals along the border of the snowed-in park after trying to leave for food at lower elevations. Park officials plan to send an undetermined number to slaughter under a federal-state agreement meant to protect Montana livestock against the reproductive disease brucellosis.

Lovell wrote that while the slaughter of bison may be "distasteful," it is a "time-honored" method of dealing with the disease.

Opponents say they will appeal the ruling.

Comments

[Hypnos Rises]

05:14 PM on 02/17/2011

I will kill thousand east coasters because they are migrating to the west coast.

[devildoc68]

08:25 AM on 02/17/2011

It is interesting that this disease originates in cattle and has spread to bison and is very high in elk...but elk are not slaughtered...just bison whose meat is a threat to cattle ranchers who are subsidized by the tax payer and use public lands to graze their cattle. Bison were here first...cattle are imported yet the special interest cattle ranchers lay waste to bison to glut their pockets. If bison are a threat...move your cattle ranches to other areas...oh...that's right...you get nearly free use of bison territory. Public land use should be open to public vote...not some judge who is no doubt connected to cattle in some way or a federal agency. Once there were an estimated 60 million bison...now just a few thousand....all due to ranchers and government oversight. To reduce 60 million to just 1000 in about 40 years...if you killed a 1000 a day it would take 160 years...this was done in 40 years in the 1800's. That's what ranchers and the feds are capable of. Pathetic that our wildlife is destroyed for McDonnalds and the like. 'Yup...done got muh coonskin hat and muh rifle...gone's to kill me some buff-low and keep muh cattle'. What a pathetic mentality toward our wildlife.

[aquarius2]

12:05 AM on 02/18/2011

Thank you for that information about the disease origins. Guess the ranchers are no different today than they were in the 1800's.

[tinsldr2]

11:45 AM on 02/16/2011

It is lunch time here and this made me hungry!!

But this has gone on in the past and the Buffalo in the park are not threatened by this.

On the other hand,

February 16, 2011 11:02 am EST
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has blocked the transport of bison into his state for slaughter, effectively granting the animals a reprieve and giving conservationists a small unexpected victory.

[erdoc53]

10:06 AM on 02/16/2011

Why don't theY just treat them and release them? They are all corraled, they could just treat them if it's disease they are worried about.

[lkgilles]

09:46 AM on 02/16/2011

Murder ... tasty tasty murder...

Ever had a bison burger? It is very good :)

[Eldergothfather]

09:44 AM on 02/16/2011

Facepalm

[Bob Kleppang]

09:37 AM on 02/16/2011

I would assume that since they say slaughter, a meat processing term, that the meat might be given away to feed people in need? Or should the buffalo just be kept in pens until they die of starvation, or left to migrate and potentially wipe out herds of cattle -and the livelihoods -of ranchers. But, oh no, to many posters here it seems that that meat comes from the meat fairy and mother nature is never cruel.

Sure, I wish there was a better of solution, but Buffalo are no longer at risk of extinction, buffalo (see buffalo burgers, etc.) is a high protein and healthy alternative to beef and buffalo are now raised on ranches throughout the US for that purpose, and conservation -which is what brought the buffalo herds back -is what is being practiced here. How about we let science, and not Disney, drive our conservation efforts.

[Andrew Gunther]

09:56 AM on 02/16/2011

You have a point taking a mature animal for food is an Ethical issue no more no less. However slaughtering entire groups because we failed to plan or care is an indictment on society.

There is a better solution farm in Harmony live in harmony. The Arapaho do......

[erdoc53]

10:08 AM on 02/16/2011

I thought they were going tonslaughter them because they carry disease....whynwould anyone want to eat meat from a diseased animal? Oh I forgot about hunters, they do that all the time! Not me, no thanks.

[mks22]

09:30 AM on 02/16/2011

Many Americans suffer from a 'time-honored' disease

hunger

[Wendy Dreeszen Wiese]

09:10 AM on 02/16/2011

If you've never been to Yellowstone, you have no idea how many bison there are there. 500 bison will not be missed.

[chaucer1]

09:14 AM on 02/16/2011

And you won't, either, so go post elsewhere.

[Wendy Dreeszen Wiese]

09:31 AM on 02/16/2011

Mmmm. Bison burgers.

[lkgilles]

09:48 AM on 02/16/2011

Agreed. This is not a big deal at all.

[Mallory Avis]

09:08 AM on 02/16/2011

- - and there was a time we though water-boarding was an effective and "time-honored" method of dealing with terrorists. wtf.

[the avenging angel]

09:07 AM on 02/16/2011

This report is just sickening

[CHMB]

09:05 AM on 02/16/2011

Whoever would have thought that animals migrate? My goodness!!

[Meesterclean]

08:57 AM on 02/16/2011

If they just brought in a lot of hay and dumped it on the land they are supposed to be on, wouldn't they return?

[ProudAmericanLiberal]

09:34 AM on 02/16/2011

Bison don't eat hay.

[Meesterclean]

09:56 AM on 02/16/2011

Okay. Couldn't they just find what they do eat and do the same?

[welsh91]

12:18 PM on 02/18/2011

Hahahaha FTW!

[khg1]

08:54 AM on 02/16/2011

No no no no no! This is the wrong direction!

[audeo03]

08:49 AM on 02/16/2011

The last wild buffalo, are going to die so people in SUVs can drive up to the fast food window to gorge themselves.

100% SICK.

[R2D2-51]

10:50 PM on 02/16/2011

PART I

Let me tell you I have gotten so sick from living in a society in this country that is so self-absorbed in such a sick way of living(obviously there are some exceptions) I have termed it, "the Hamster Wheel Syndrome" designed by social engineers for you to spend yourself into eternal debt and oblivion working at jobs people generally don't wake up every morning and feeling they can't wait to get to work because the work is so enjoyable.
Driven by immediate gratification that is an endless pursuit of futility chasing too few dollars against a biological clock that wears down telomeres and your body's immune system’s ability to withstand the onslaught of oxygen free radicals and exposure to stress induced diseases and cancers as one ages and relationships become compromised in an era of self-absorption , financial insecurities, where through it all we stand by and watch knowing full well that given the rate of Capitalistic accumulation of the worlds wealth to drive this globalized economic engine that now has the entire world wrapped in its embrace with no way out as it now runs on auto-pilot.

[R2D2-51]

10:51 PM on 02/16/2011

PART II
And where the exponential function of arithmetic meters out the daily use of fossil fuels against the worlds energy reserves, as China and India, whose populations dwarf this entire scenario with its driving engine of needing to sustain its growth in this whirligig of global fossil fuel grid supplied by a finite amount of natural resources in light of the contamination we have exacted and will continue to exact exponentially as the global fossil fuel people population continues to degrade every living system on the planet; when do we drive ourselves off the cliff into the abyss?
What will save us-Obama? No ourselves through a collective effort of solidarity to bring the world population to the steps of the United Nations and demand a halt to the destruction of our planet, our true way of life and the sould which reaches our humanity that we be saved.