Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Island Park, Idaho - Four wild bison were captured in Idaho and transported to Yellowstone National Park today in an operation conducted by the Idaho Department of Agriculture, Department of Fish and Game, Highway Patrol, and the Fremont County Sheriff's Department.

Shortly after 8am, three of four bison that were grazing to the west of Highway 20 near Island Park were shot with tranquilizers, loaded onto a livestock trailer and transported to the Park's west entrance near West Yellowstone, Montana. The fourth bull was captured at 10am and transported to a service road inside the park where the trailer holding the other three was waiting. Citizens were prevented from witnessing the release. At 1:30 today, all four bulls were released near Grant's Pass.

Idaho maintains a "zero tolerance" policy for bison entering the state. In past years bison migrating into Idaho have been shot and killed because of fears that they could transmit brucellosis to cattle.

According to Park biologist John Mack, "There has never been a documented case of a bull bison transmitting brucellosis."

Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) volunteers have been standing with the four bulls while they have been out of the park to protect them and to document any actions taken against them. BFC activists witnessed today's capture and videotaped as the bison were tranquilized and dragged onto the trailer.

"They would have killed them if we weren't out here this morning," said BFC volunteer Valerie Coulter. "Idaho didn't want to be thrust into the bison slaughter spotlight with our video footage of them killing four bulls."

"Elk, also known to carry brucellosis, are allowed to move freely between the park and surrounding states," stated BFC spokesperson Dan Brister, "but the minute a buffalo steps out it is either killed or pushed back into the park."

Jim Coefield, of The Ecology Center, Inc. in Missoula MT. said "the presence of these buffalo in Idaho, so far from Yellowstone's boundary, lays bare a fatal flaw in federal and state Bison Management Plan: buffalo are a migratory species. The Plan dictates that bison remain inside an arbitrary boundary, kow-towing to the cattle industry's dictates that they still want control of the West. As the salmon swims to the sea and the goose flies south for the winter, buffalo should be allowed to migrate to their ancestral feeding grounds outside of Yellowstone National Park."

Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers defend the buffalo on their traditional habitat and advocate for their protection. BFC is the only group working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild buffalo.

Video footage available upon request, contact, Daniel Brister, and/or Jim Coefield.