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 RDC is fighting to halt the government's systematic capture and killing of Yellowstone's bison -- better known as American buffalo -- as they roam beyond the boundaries of the park in search of food during the harsh winter months. This year the rate of slaughter has reached unprecedented proportions with 1,435 buffalo dead -- about 30 percent of the entire herd -- as we go to press. In response, the NRDC Action Fund, our partner organization, has already generated more than 100,000 petitions to stop the killing. "The National Park Service should be acting as the guardian of this magnificent herd, not as an accomplice in its execution," said Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's national parks project.
The park service and the Montana Department of Livestock claim that the brutal extermination of Yellowstone's wild bison is necessary to prevent the spread of a disease, brucellosis, to cattle. But only about 200 cows graze in the lands outside the park where these buffalo might naturally migrate. Moreover, the risk of disease is largely theoretical since brucellosis has never been transmitted from bison to cow in a natural setting, and the cows can be vaccinated against the disease if they haven't been already.
Driven to the very brink of extinction by the early 1900s, America's last 23 buffalo found a safe haven inside Yellowstone. Numbering 4,700 before this past winter, the park's herd is one of the last living links to the 80 million bison that once roamed the Great Plains. NRDC, along with the Buffalo Field Campaign and other groups, have filed a petition with the National Park Service to halt the killing. We are also building pressure on the agency to protect buffalo that wander outside the north end of the park by allowing them access to a 7,900-acre expanse of forest service lands. Finally, we are urging federal and state authorities to develop a commonsense management plan that allows buffalo to graze on public lands to the west of Yellowstone where cows have been removed, as well as on private lands by permission. NRDC is prepared to take the park service to court if necessary to protect America's last wild and free-roaming herd.
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