In what has senselessly become an annual rite of spring in Montana, the state's Department of Livestock (DOL) killed four buffalo yesterday that were naturally roaming outside the western border of Yellowstone National Park. 

Their crime?  Being wild, free-roaming buffalo.  Their punishment?  Death.  Why?  The stated justification is concern that wild buffalo may spread brucellosis -- a disease that causes pregnant animals to abort -- to domestic cattle in Montana. 

Yet no documented case of brucellosis transmission from wild buffalo to cattle has occurred under natural conditions.

And all four of the executed buffalo were bulls, with whom the threat of disease transmission is essentially nonexistent -- because they cannot become pregnant and miscarry (the disease is primarily transmitted through ingestion of birthing matter).

Three of the bulls were captured and sent to a slaughterhouse.  They were grazing just north of an area designated year-round habitat for bulls last year under the adaptive management changes (taking into account the bulls' lack of transmission risk).

The fourth bull was shot at the edge of a guest ranch.  DOL Executive Officer Christian Mackay said the bull had recently been mingling with livestock in the area. 

But the ranch manager, who lives in the area, unlike Mackay, said the buffalo was more than a mile from the nearest cattle herd when the DOL agents shot and killed it.

According to the Associated Press article:

She called the shooting "unfortunate" and said it had caused a stir among the ranch's three dozen guests.

"The buffalo are a national symbol," she said.  "The cattle ranchers feel that they could be in peril, which I can appreciate.  But I don't really know if the evidence is there to back them up.  Is this just going to continue forever and ever?  There has to be a solution."

There is, and it's simple:  more year-round habitat for Yellowstone's buffalo outside the Park in Montana -- and reasonable tolerance for this iconic animal. 

Yellowstone's buffalo should be celebrated and appreciated for their ecological, aesthetic, economic, and spiritual values.  The buffalo want to voluntarily bring these values to Montana.  You'd think the State of Montana would be jumping for joy at its good fortune.  Yet we're begging Montana to reasonably tolerate them. 

Again, senseless.

(And with tourism being such huge business in Montana, especially in the gateway communities around Yellowstone National Park, I wonder if the state will promote the Montana experience of having government agents shooting Yellowstone's wild buffalo at the edge of a guest ranch.  I doubt it.)

(Photo courtesy of Dave Showalter)