Brucellosis
Research
When
the federal Department of Homeland Security designated
brucellosis as a select agent that may be developed as
a Bio-Weapon of Mass Destruction, under the Homeland
Security (Bio Terror) Act of 2002, it triggered large
sums of federal dollars into Montana in fiscal year 2005.
• $4,360,000
for Phase I, II, III Brucellosis buffalo quarantine
facilities = $13,110 cost per buffalo emerging at
the end of Phase III as a 4 year old buffalo free
of brucellosis
• $441,000
to Montana State University for brucellosis vaccine
research
• $895,000
to the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis
Committee
• $660,000
to Montana State Department of Livestock
• $69,000
to Montana State Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks
• $6,900
to Federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service,
USDA
• $1,200,000
to Yellowstone National Park for inoculating buffalo
with RB-51 through bio pneumatic bullets at a range
of 20 yards
 With
this amount of dollars flowing into Montana, it is literally
impossible to talk sensibly to the federal, state and
research agencies about a practical method to manage
brucellosis and delineate brucellosis management areas
for this purpose. It has been shown that brucellosis
is a manageable disease and there is no reason for the
zero tolerance policy, of capture, test, hazing, slaughter
and quarantine.
In
1988 the Montana State Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks
(FWP) opened a planned special hunt, which took place
along highways and roads outside the boundaries of Yellowstone
Park. The hunt was highly visible to anti-hunting activists
with their video camcorders. Capitulating to the demands
of cattlemen, FWP used no discretion in managing the
hunt and when the shooting was over, 569 buffalo were
killed all in plain sight of the viewing public. News
coverage of the fate of the great beasts caused a national
uproar. People across the country could not understand
why the buffalo were not allowed to migrate to winter
forage areas. Hunters took all of the blame. In fact,
the reason so many buffalo were shot was the caving in
of the FWP to pressure from cattlemen. Discrete, efficient,
fundraising, public hunts were turned into an unacceptable
slaughter of a wildlife resource, in full view of an
enraged public. Montana’s Governor Stevens was
embarrassed and could not stand the heat from the nation.
He refused to run for his second term. FWP were so frightened
by this experience that it took 16 years before they
could even say the word buffalo.
We
have learned that buffalo will reproduce and occupy their
entire habitat and will move to occupy additional habitat
if allowed. Population control is necessary because over
grazing will deplete the range. The discrete hunting
of buffalo on their winter ranges outside the Park is
an obvious solution to control buffalo numbers. What
is needed is the acquisition of migration corridors and
winter forage areas where licensed public hunters can
discretely harvest surplus animals, after they become
established on public lands outside Yellowstone National
Park.
Joe
Gutkoski, Vice President, Yellowstone Buffalo Foundation
January 2, 2006 |
