Bison slaughter

The Thursday, July 20, Washington Post includes an article, headed, "A Bison Kill Hardly Fits the Bill. Interior Official Comes Under Fire for Shooting National Icon." (Pg A21.)

It opens:

"The American bison, once hunted almost to extinction, is now so revered in the United States that its image graces the seal of the Interior Department, where it stands proudly in the shadow of mountains.

"Still, a senior political appointee at Interior apparently thought that the real thing might look better stuffed and mounted -- so he shot one.

"David P. Smith, a hunter who until last Friday was deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, shot and killed a bison grazing at a friend's ranch in Texas in December 2004. He had the hoofs made into bookends and kept the skull, wrapped in taxidermy packaging, in the garage of his home.

"Smith broke no laws by shooting the semi-domesticated animal in the head with a rifle from 50 yards away. But in a new report, Interior Inspector General Earl E. Devaney found that Smith violated rules banning federal officials from accepting gifts from people who are regulated by, or might do business with, their agency.

We read:
"Smith stated that he drove out to where the bison was known to graze and, upon seeing it, got out of the vehicle and shot the bison from approximately 50 to 75 yards in the head with a .300 Winchester rifle. Smith stated that he had to shoot it in such a way that would put it down without injuring any of the hunters or other animals and that the bison needed to be killed because it was 'tearing up a bunch of stuff.'"

The article includes a quote from Mike Mease, coordinator for the Buffalo Field Campaign:
"Hunting a buffalo, whether wild or domesticated, is a lot like hunting a couch. You can walk right up to it and shoot it, and it won't run from you. There's no real chase or hunt involved. . . . Buffalo don't really fear humans."

The timing of the article is ironic, given that it refers to Buffalo as "revered" while it coincides with the release of a billboard by the Buffalo Field Campaign which, according to the group's press release, will "focus attention on Yellowstone National Park's role in the ongoing slaughter of the Yellowstone bison, America's only continuously wild herd."

The press release continues:
"More than one in five members of the herd, or over 1,000 buffalo, were killed by Montana and federal agencies during the winter of 2005-2006." Over 900 were bison of Yellowstone National Park.

And it says:
"Fear that bison may transmit the livestock disease brucellosis to cattle is the purported justification for the slaughter of wild buffalo by state and federal agencies. However, there has never been a documented case of wild bison transmitting brucellosis to livestock and none of the adult bison slaughtered by the Park Service this year were first tested for brucellosis."

The billboards are being sponsored by Patagonia Inc.

You can read the Washington Post article on Smith's bison kill at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901888.html

It offers a great opportunity for letters about how we treat these "revered" animals. You'll find loads of information, and disturbing photographs, at the Buffalo Field Campaign Website, http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org. An image of their billboard is available at: http://www.letbuffaloroam.com.

The Washington Post takes letters at letters [at] washpost.com and advises, "Please do not send attachments; they will not be read. Letters must be exclusive to The Washington Post, and must include the writer's home address and home and business telephone numbers."


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)