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[source: Pat Morris via AIM_AUTONOMOUS_PA@onelist.com]

Mon, 14 Feb 2000
http://www.billingsgazette.com/

Confrontations arise over bison that refuses to
be hazed

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (AP) - Confrontations between
activists and Montana Department of Livestock officials
have arisen over a single bison that refuses to be hazed
back into the park.

The bison is the only one known to stray beyond the park's
borders so far this winter. Montana has a policy of herding
the animals back into the park and killing those that test
positive for brucellosis.

The disease can cause cattle to abort and has been known to
cause undulant fever in humans, although some question how
easily brucellosis can be transmitted to cattle.

The bull has not budged after four hazing efforts over two
weeks, according to department spokeswoman Karen Cooper,
who said the animal is sheltered by thick vegetation and is
staying put three miles from the park.

Buffalo Field Campaign activists, who are fighting Montana's
bison management policy, said state workers kept getting
their snowmobiles stuck and tried chasing the bull on
snowshoes Feb. 3.

The mild winter has kept most bison in side the park,
according to Daniel Brister, a spokesman for the group.

All the same, the group is critical of the state's campaign
to "harass" the lone bull. Hazing causes unnecessary stress
and taxes the energy reserves bison need to survive the
winter, according to the group.

The group is also complaining about the Gallatin County,
Mont., Sheriff's Department seizure of a video shot of
attempts to haze the bull. The activists were told the tape
was seized as evidence for a possible charge of obstruction,
Brister said.

"This illegal confiscation of our documentation is
unacceptable and unconstitutional," Buffalo Field Campaign
co-founder Michael Mease said.

Gallatin County Sheriff's Capt. Don Houghton said the tape
was seized because the group claimed it had "evidence" on
it, but he did not know what evidence was on the tape.
 

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