Blogs

editor's introduction: Julie Lehman has written a provocative essay that could raise a challenge not only to friends of the livestock industry but also to wildlife advocates as well. She argues that we should take down some of the abstract barriers that have us see buffalo and cows as fundamentally different kinds of beings.

And once we start murdering buffalo in order to protect the ranchers' rights to cows whose selfhood has been utterly devalued, we begin to see that rather than being enemies, the cow and the buffalo have the solidarity of being pawns in a system which doesn't value either of them, except as property, or as obstacles to the maximizing of property.

Appearing in today's Missoulian, Billings Gazette, and Helena Independent Record, Lee Newspapers reporter Jennifer McKee misrepresented the press release of Buffalo Allies of Bozeman.

I wrote the following letter to McKee in response.

Ms. McKee,

I am writing on behalf of myself and not the group I am a member of - Buffalo Allies of Bozeman - regarding your article today that appeared in some newspapers on the brucellosis issue as it relates to corriente roping cattle. Though I am writing for myself alone, I am quoted in the press release that we sent out, and I helped edit and distribute the release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Chris Klatt
406-599-3629
lodgepole@riseup.net
June 12, 2008

(Bozeman, Mont.) – The grassroots citizens group Buffalo Allies of Bozeman responded to the Monday announcement of brucellosis in a cattle herd in the Paradise Valley with a challenge to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer to withdraw from the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP).

This editorial is written by Jim Bailey, a board member of the Gallatin Wildlife Association and a retired biologist. We have printed this with his permission.

Violating Yellowstone Policy

With all the furor over slaughter of 1600 bison from Yellowstone National Park, we are overlooking a serious issue. The Interagency Bison Management Plan and Yellowstone Superintendent Lewis are violating mandates and policies of the National Park Service.

Congress mandates retaining Park resources “in their natural conditions” and leaving them “unimpaired for future generations.” Park Service policy is to “maintain processes of naturally evolving ecosystems” and to minimize “human interference with evolving genetic diversity.”

It is likely that genetic diversity of the Park’s bison was lost to slaughtering in 2008. Moreover, natural selection has largely been replaced by human intervention. Coevolution of the Park’s animals, plants and microorganisms has been sidetracked, along with bison adaptation to their physical environment.

Buffalo Allies of Bozeman Meeting Notes
May 21, 2008 at 7 PM
Montana State University Student Union Building (2nd floor cafeteria – NW corner)

Facilitator: Chris
Attendees: 5

Updates
Group discussed:
1. Nine bulls at Duck Creek, continued hazing operations on Horse Butte
2. Formal complaint by Hebgen Lake Estates Homeowner's Assn.