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  • SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15 2007 4:00 PM

Now That They're Not as Close to Extinction, Let's Kill 'Em Dead



Ah, the bison, that majestic symbol of the American West. Did you know, that to this day, there are still some people who think that buffalo are extinct? They're not, of course, even though they came pretty close once upon a time. Between 1868 and 1881 an estimated 31 million were slaughtered, and by 1889 the vast herd was nearly extinct, falling to a mere 1,100 in the U.S. and Canada.

More recently, efforts have been made to protect the bison, but at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, home to one of the nation's largest free-roaming herds, all that's about to change.

For the first time in nearly a decade, hunters on Saturday begin tracking and killing buffalo on the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where federal wildlife managers plan to cut the herd from 1,200 to 500 over the next five years.

The hunt aims to cull 300 buffalo -- also called bison -- by December.

Federal wildlife managers!? Doesn't that title sound like someone who'd be dedicated to protecting wildlife? So ironic! And why on earth would they want to cut the herd by nearly half? A couple of the excuses being given by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is that the buffalo on this "refuge" have been "overgrazing" and can carry diseases that might infect domestic livestock.

Well, shoot. We wouldn't want one of the world's oldest, most majestic creatures eating more grass than its fair share! Better just to kill them. And all of those antibiotics that our domestic livestock are dosed with surely wouldn't be a match for the germs carried by such an ancient, filthy beast. Annnyway. Unsurprisingly, a lot of "animal rights" types are pretty pissed off.

"Hunting these bison is like hunting parked cars," said Jonathan Lovvorn, a vice president of the U.S. Humane Society and attorney with the Fund for Animals.

So, how did this happen? What kind of crafy, clever brainwork went into this killer plan?

The Fund for Animals was behind a 1998 lawsuit that suspended a plan to thin the herd significantly through hunting, a moratorium lifted last month by a federal judge. While the refuge approved limited hunting of bison in the years before the lawsuit, no hunt in its history has approximated the magnitude of the season that starts on Saturday.

For decades, wildlife managers have sought to lessen the competition in the winter for forage among wild animals and cattle by feeding elk at the refuge, a practice that began attracting buffalo in 1980 and helped their population soar.

The bison hunt on the refuge comes as species in the American West are vying for food sources made scarce by months of fire, years of drought and by the rapid development of lands that once harbored wildlife.

Okay, cool--so they're killing them to protect them from death. That makes sense.

 

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Comments
Formus

Formus

Milwaukee, WI
May 2007

SEP 15, 2007 04:10 PM

Well, population control is pretty important. Considering how fucking tiny we've made their habitat, it's now much easier for them to reach the ceiling of their sustainability, like cattle overgrazing a farm. So I can see the logic behind this.

sick

sick

Minneapolis, MN
June 2003

SEP 15, 2007 04:15 PM

The hunt aims to cull 300 buffalo -- also called bison -- by December.



Shouldn't that properly be, "The hunt aims to cull 300 bison -- also called buffalo -- by December"? Since the animal's proper name is the American bison and all. Buffalo are a related, but separate, group of animals--the Asian water buffalo and African buffalo.

Now, parse this gramatically correct sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Minceir

Minceir

I'm lost
September 2011

SEP 15, 2007 04:17 PM

Considering bison actually eat less than what cattle normally do, I can hardly see the point of them culling. when all the cattle are going to end up as, is meat on your table and that generally they would not even share the same Habitat as bison either.

starsovertibet

starsovertibet

Livonia, MI
August 2007

SEP 15, 2007 04:21 PM

The smarter and more responsible thing for us to do is move some of them to new land so that instead of knocking their numbers back down, they can build up. Sure there are too many for that land to sustain, but there's plenty of other land out there.

Clidna

Clidna

Canada
January 2005

SEP 15, 2007 04:31 PM

starsovertibet said:
The smarter and more responsible thing for us to do is move some of them to new land so that instead of knocking their numbers back down, they can build up. Sure there are too many for that land to sustain, but there's plenty of other land out there.



Stop making sense, you, or you`re outta here! wink

flabajaba2213

flabajaba2213

Plymouth, MA
July 2006

SEP 15, 2007 04:31 PM

At least now we get our Bison burgers, which are actually pretty tasty.

KingHELL

kinghell

Portland, OR
July 2003

SEP 15, 2007 04:33 PM

Yes, but buffalo are delicious! And lower in cholesterol that beef (also delicious)! Plus, if we leave too many of them alive, it might inspire the American Indian to rise up against us again.

phrogg

phrogg

Greenville, SC
August 2005

SEP 15, 2007 04:35 PM

"We must destroy this village in order to liberate it."

Heathen_Dave

Heathen_Dave

Birmingham, AL
July 2005

SEP 15, 2007 04:36 PM

Sick said:
Now, parse this gramatically correct sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.



Isn't that supposed to be a question mark?

meatpieboy

meatpieboy

Korea, D.P.R.
June 2004

SEP 15, 2007 04:39 PM

The smarter thing to do would be to shoot some of the goddamn cows.

sarahg

sarahg

USA
November 2004

SEP 15, 2007 04:47 PM

Jesus Christ.

That is all.

rumpsummoner

rumpsummoner

Portland, OR
August 2003

SEP 15, 2007 04:51 PM

As someone from Wyoming and who also has to be pro-animal-rights I think you need to go read about Wyoming winters and the massive funding cuts that have happened since Bush came to power. There is only so much food in the forest, particularly in the winter. The government has been feeding the Elk and by proxy the Bison to keep them from starving in the winter which has the benefit of keeping all the ranged-livestock's food supplies viable during the winter and also keeps the pro-animal activists happy because the elk and bison numbers keep going up. They do this because it allows a single solution for winter food scarcity for all of the ranchers as opposed to them all having to come up with independent solutions (see how they solved the wolf problem). The Bush administration has severely cut the funding that allowed such programs to exist. The options have become: a) let the animals starve and freeze to death in the winter naturally, slowly, and painfully because the state can't afford to feed them anymore or b) thin the herd by allowing them to be hunted unnaturally but quickly. If it were up to me and I had a choice on how I had to die I would take being hunted over starving to death any day.

The guys that make these decisions do actually love animals and the environment and they understand the impact of their actions. I know everyone wants life to be lollipops and rainbows; however, in reality, wild things kill, get killed, and starve etc. Man has obviously caused a disruption and now we have the choice on whether we can manage our disruption or just let everything die naturally and painfully. There is no going back to the way things were. The state allows the hunting because it takes what would be a large area covered with dead rotting diseased carcasses and turns it into a balanced area and a lot of freezers full of "free-range" organic bison meat. That is how they determine how many animals can be hunted every year and that is how they determine how many licenses to hand out. The number is higher than it has ever been because there has been no controlled hunting allowed for almost a decade due to a lawsuit. The population growth has gone up accordingly. It didn't go up naturally. All of those Bison could be killed in a single winter if the state stopped feeing them.

This is how the world works whether people want to admit it or not. Things are not as black and white as cynical know-it-alls make them out to be. If you take a trip to Yellowstone one year after a hard winter and see what it does to the wildlife, you'll understand that what the game and fish department is up against. They have lawsuits coming from people that have never even been to the state on one side, ranchers on another side, and they are in the middle with the animals and very little funding. Game and Fish of Wyoming is doing is the most humane thing that can be done with the given resources in the given situation.

Heathen_Dave

Heathen_Dave

Birmingham, AL
July 2005

SEP 15, 2007 05:02 PM

A well spoken man in a cowboy hat? That's like an emotional robot.

Well put though, Mr. rumpsummoner.

lavenir

lavenir

Turlock, CA
June 2007

SEP 15, 2007 05:09 PM

rumpsummoner said:

This is how the world works whether people want to admit it or not.

Ah, but what is "the world"?

gdarklighter

gdarklighter

San Diego, CA
August 2005

SEP 15, 2007 05:29 PM

thethrowback said:

rumpsummoner said:

This is how the world works whether people want to admit it or not.

Ah, but what is "the world"?



If you bring Descartes into this, I might have to hurt somebody.

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