The Haze Has Begun www.BuffaloFieldCampaign.org

Buffalo Field Campaign exists because the country's last wild herd of bison is being hazed, slaughtered, captured and experimented on as a part of the Inter-agency Bison Management Plan (IBMP). The agencies that comprise the IBMP are the National Park Service, USDA-Forest Service, USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Montana Department of Livestock, and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks.

The buffalo have  been hazed every day this week since Tuesday (today is Saturday, and there is a high probability of hazing tomorrow). Agents shoot cracker/concussion rounds over the heads of buffalo, throw rocks and sticks, ram them with vehicles, and generally scare them away from their annual migration destinations miles back to the places from with they migrated. The vast majority of the buffalo being hazed right now are pregnant females on the cusp of birth and 1-3 year olds. These buffalo are part of the last wild herd of buffalo in the country. All other buffalo are denied their natural instincts by being fed hay and kept in enclosures, and are more often than not cross-bred with cows. Most of these buffalo are only kept for slaughter and consumption. These food-buffalo (a.k.a. "Beefalo") are counted in the population count; thus, buffalo are not on the Endangered Species List. THEY SHOULD BE. The Yellowstone herd is the last population of wild buffalo. They number 3,700 and the National Park Service has decided arbitrarily that the population should be capped at 3,000. If there were 3,000 elk or Bald Eagles or salmon, they would be protected, but they're not.

They're not protected because they compete with cattle for grazing rights of a VERY small amount of land that is only traversed and occupied up to 3 months of the year during calving season. The cattle industry in this country, and especially in Montana, is very powerful monetarily and politically. They want to make sure that the American Buffalo, a symbol of wildness and nature, is kept in low numbers quarantined inside Yellowstone National Park. It is also a double-standard since elk and deer and other herd/grazing species are protected because they are open to hunters, whereas buffalo are only open to hunting by Native American nations. The reasoning used by the Livestock Industry is that buffalo rarely but sometimes carry brucellosis, a bacterial disease that causes stillbirths in infected animals. It is a disease that was given to wildlife from a cow nursing a bison calf in the middle of the 20th Century. Elk are widespread and often carry brucellosis, but they are left alone for hunters' sport. This is a persecution, a Holocaust being committed against a magnificent animal revered throughout its existence by humans, all for the desires of a few people. And it has begun again this year.

Once again, buffalo are being hazed, and the Buffalo Field Campaign is here standing with the buffalo wherever they have left the arbitrary borders of Yellowstone National Park, documenting this abuse and holding the perpetrators responsible for their actions. Unfortunately, the law supports most of their actions, and law enforcement is almost always participating in the haze and slaughter of the buffalo. So, we must change the law and open the eyes of the public to the atrocities being carried out here. Please, spread the word, show people the abuse happening here. The BFC website, www.BuffaloFieldCampaign.org has tons of information, videos, and ways to take action to help the buffalo. I will be here this year standing with the buffalo until they are safe, and pray that somehow, unlike the last 150 years, the abuse will not continue next Spring.