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Montana moves to resume bison hunting; activists promise protests
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)--On a spring day in 1990, there was chaos near the border of Yellowstone National Park and D.J. Schubert was in the thick of it, leading protesters who were trying to keep hunters from killing bison that had left the park.
Animals were running. Hunters and activists squared off. And cameras, he said, captured it all.
Schubert, a wildlife biologist with The Fund for Animals, believes media attention and public outrage played a big role in the state's decision in 1991 to halt bison hunting. And he and other activists promise it will happen again--including more bad publicity for Montana--if the state allows hunting to resume this winter, as planned.
"Once again, you're going to give the state of Montana and hunters a black eye," he said Oct. 8. "It's going to be an embarrassment for the state and hunters."
"I can guarantee you lawsuits. I can guarantee you public outcry," agreed Mike Mease of the Buffalo Field Campaign, which plans to document the hunt. "These animals are sacred to a lot of people."
The controversy surrounding bison heats up each winter around Yellowstone when the animals leave the park in search of forage. Ranchers in Montana worry the bison will transmit brucellosis, a disease that can cause cattle to abort, although activists say it's never been proven that bison can spread the disease to cattle in the wild.
A plan carried out by several state and federal agencies allows for hazing and capture of Yellowstone bison that wander out of the park and for testing the animals for brucellosis. Bison that test positive are sent to slaughter.
But some hunters feel that if bison are to be killed anyway, they should have the opportunity to take a rare trophy. And wildlife commissioners voted tentatively this week to allow up to 25 bison to be killed during a month-long season to start in January. The public has until Nov. 26 to comment.
Future hunts would go from about Nov. 15 through Feb. 15, with the number of permits varying each year.
The hunts of the 1980s drew outrage in part because of the way they were conducted. Wardens led each hunter to a specific animal, which often was peacefully grazing when it was shot at close range.
This time around, state wildlife officials insist, the hunt will look much different. There will be no wildlife officials guiding hunters. Hunting will occur in areas where state and federal officials are not hazing the bison, both measures intended to address the issue of a "fair chase" hunt, said Pat Flowers, a regional supervisor for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
"In order to re-engage sportsmen in managing bison, I think it's important to offer them an opportunity to hunt bison," he said.
Wildlife and hunting groups say interest is bound to be high. But support is not unanimous; some hunters fear what it could do in its current form to the image of hunting.
"The hunters of Montana don't want to be caught in this whirlwind and be the bad guy," said Craig Sharpe, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation.
From 1985 to 1989, about 670 bison were killed in the hunts--most in the winter of 1988-1989. Just 18 were killed the following two winters, the department said, but the attention surrounding the hunts continued.
Photos and video footage of the confrontations between hunters and animal rights activists made national news, and many felt the publicity was a blight on Montana's tourism industry.
The Montana Legislature halted the hunts in 1991, changing it from sport to a disease control program implemented by state and federal officials. Even that is documented by the Buffalo Field Campaign, an activist group that exists to protect Yellowstone bison. Add in a hunt, the activists say, and the scrutiny will intensify.
"This is no longer a little slipped-under-the-carpet Montana issue," Mease said. "This is a national issue and an international issue and people are pissed off."
Date: 10/20/04
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