The allure of playing cowboy in a helicopter proved to be too much, so Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) agents jumped in their helicopter a day early and hazed more than 100 bison off the Horse Butte peninsula in Montana and back into Yellowstone National Park yesterday. 

Why? 

They spent the time, resources, and taxpayer dollars to haze (and endanger) bison and disrupt wildlife and human lives to protect cattle that don't exist from a disease that's never been known to transmit from bison to cattle in the wild.  I'm not kidding. 

In the process, according to the Buffalo Field Campaign,

The DOL and other agents violated private property rights on Horse Butte . . . . They flew their helicopter low to the ground inside the Galanis' Yellowstone Ranch Preserve, Montana's largest "Buffalo Safe Zone." Agents on horseback and an ATV, accompanied by a Forest Service law enforcement officer, also patrolled the housing area of Yellowstone Village; for years the majority of residents in Horse Butte's Yellowstone Village have been resisting the DOL's intrusion upon the bison in their neighborhood.

Yet, according to the DOL's Executive Director, Christian Mackay, yesterday's hazing "went well.  No injuries, no incidents, no arrests. A very smooth operation."  Hazing over 100 wild bison - the largest mammal in North America - miles and miles into Yellowstone National Park with ATVs, horses, and a helicopter was a "smooth operation?"  Sounds like bison pucky to me - these hazing operations stress the animals, with injuries, and sometimes death, resulting.

There is no legitimate reason to haze bison from Horse Butte.  The landowners there welcome the animals, and Horse Butte is cattle-free year-round.  So why do they do it?

In a story in today's Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Jay Bodner of the Montana Stockgrowers Association finally admitted what we've known along:

If you allow more animals out (of the park) for birthing, that will increase the risk" of spreading brucellosis, said [Bodner]. "As you see more bison to manage, as that population increases, there will be a larger migration, thus compounding the issue further."

It's not about managing brucellosis for the Stockgrowers, it's about making sure the bison population remains small.  

And that's a real shame. 

Yellowstone's buffalo are the only continuously wild, free-roaming herd of buffalo left in America.  And while the vast majority of buffalo in America possess cattle genes, Yellowstone's do not.  As such, they're critically important for the conservation of the species. 

When our government agencies were hazing bison off Horse Butte yesterday, they were chasing away some of the last remnants of wildness that exist in the lower forty-eight states.  And they were doing it for no good reason.  It was another horrible day of déjà vu for wild bison in Montana. 

Take action, and let the government know you don't want your tax dollars needlessly hazing and endangering the few wild buffalo still roaming free.