Bison capture facility filling up

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

Yellowstone National Park's bison pens are likely to reach capacity this week, which means trapped animals will be shipped to slaughter whether they have brucellosis or not.

"Once the holding capacity has been reached at that facility, all remaining bison will be shipped to slaughter without testing," park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said Tuesday.

Bison continue to move toward the park's northern boundary, she added.

Until this point, the National Park Service has been capturing bison in its trap northwest of Gardiner, then testing them for brucellosis.

Those that test negative for the disease are being held until spring.

Those testing positive are being shipped to slaughter.

However, the pens can only hold about 200 animals. There are 174 negative-testing animals there now, with 100 more awaiting testing.

Somewhere around half of them will likely test negative, which will fill the stoutly-fenced pastures at least to capacity.

Park scientists had earlier estimated the holding capacity at 125 animals. However, that has been increased by the addition of some stronger fences and the decision not to hold mature bulls, which can become cantankerous and destroy all kinds of things.

The program is in accordance with a joint state/federal plan meant to reduce the threat of brucellosis spreading to cattle. The Montana Department of Livestock and other agencies help implement the plan.

But it doesn't sit well with everybody.

Buffalo Field Campaign, a protest group, has taken to calling the park "Yellowstone National Ranch."

"With rangers luring buffalo into traps with trails of hay, handing them over to livestock inspectors who ship them to slaughter, and inoculating them with cattle vaccines and ear tagging them, we should start calling it Yellowstone National Ranch," said BFC's Dan Brister.

So far this winter, Yellowstone has shipped 182 bison to slaughter, Matthews said.

Of the 174 now in the pen, calves and non-pregnant yearlings are being vaccinated for the disease, a first in the park.

About half the park's 4,200 bison test positive for exposure to the disease, but a case of transmitting it from bison to cattle in the wild has never been documented.

Still, avoiding the disease is important to cattle ranchers. The state has been brucellosis free since 1985, after many years of work and millions of dollars in expense.

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