** SPECIAL ALERT!! TELL YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: NO VACCINATING WILD BUFFALO! BUY-OUT THE CATTLE! Wild buffalo need your voice today! Yellowstone National Park has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to begin shooting wild buffalo with an ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive, and culturally unacceptable brucellosis vaccine. You can read through the document at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/science/vaccinationprogram.html The Park intends to spend $9 million taxpayer dollars to vaccinate half the wild bison population annually for 30 years with "an imperfect vaccine" approved for use in cattle, not wild buffalo. Yellowstone National Park admits its' decision the "environmentally preferred alternative" could result in the organism spreading and infecting more buffalo with more harmful and persistent variations of brucella abortus. Yellowstone National Park does not disclose or admit what these unknown effects would be for individual buffalo and this unique and distinct population as a whole. Vaccination could jeopardize America's last wild population because Yellowstone National Park is willing to base its decision on "uncertainty", "incomplete and unavailable" science. Wild buffalo have developed their own immunity and resistance to brucellosis since contracting it from cattle over 100 years ago. Wild buffalo have never transmitted the disease back to the cattle it came from. Furthermore, Yellowstone National Park's SRB51 vaccine has not been proven safe as pregnant buffalo miscarry according to one study by scientists. Vaccination is another in a long list of invasive, intrusions into the lives of America's last wild buffalo. Remotely vaccinated buffalo will be marked "via biobullet or paint-ball gun" and buffalo vaccinated in capture pens will be marked via "pit tags" implanted under their hides. The cattle industry should bear the cost of a safe, effective vaccine for mandatory use in cattle. Additionally, millions in taxpayer funds sought by the National Park Service for vaccination would be far more effectively spent buying cattle that graze in the buffalo's native range. Where cows still graze, funds can be used to erect wildlife proof fencing for cattle. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS: Yellowstone National Park is accepting comments through July 26, 2010. Please tell them to abandon this ill-conceived and harmful plan. Vaccinating wild buffalo is an inappropriate action and use of Yellowstone National Park, and poses an unacceptable harm to America's last wild buffalo. TAKE ACTION TODAY! Urge Yellowstone to reject all alternatives in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement, and develop an alternative to buy out cattle in the buffalo's range. Comments are being accepted electronically only through the Park's web form (no email or fax allowed): http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=111&projectID=10736&documentId=34079 Alternatively, mail your comments to: Bison Ecology & Management Office Center for Resources P.O. Box 168 Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Call Superintendent Suzanne Lewis and let her know you oppose the Park's ill-conceived plan to vaccinate wild buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park and support buying out cattle in buffalo's native range: (307) 344-2213. BFC has prepared some TALKING POINTS below to help you build your comments. Speak from your heart, with your buffalo wisdom, and personalize your comments fully. If you have any questions about the adverse impacts of vaccinating wild buffalo, please contact [email protected] SIGNIFICANT ISSUES TO ADDRESS IN YOUR PERSONALIZED COMMENTS: 1. WILD BUFFALO TRUST ALTERNATIVE D: Request Yellowstone National Park develop an alternative to buyout cattle in Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin river valleys. * In light of the fact that vaccinating wildlife is ineffective, costly, harmful, intrusive, and culturally unacceptable, request Yellowstone National Park develop an alternative and disclose impacts to buy out cattle that graze in the buffalo's range. * Yellowstone National Park anticipates spending $9 million taxpayer dollars vaccinating buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park. (Appendix F) This funding could be allocated to buy out cattle on private lands and conserve the habitat in perpetuity for native wildlife. * High priority habitats to buyout cattle include wildlife migration corridors in the Gardiner basin and Hebgen basin. * The buy out should focus on connectivity of habitats and wildlife migration in the Yellowstone, Madison, and Gallatin river valleys. * Where cows still graze, funds could be used to erect wildlife proof fencing around cattle. * Free range dispersal of buffalo where cattle no longer graze across the landscape would allow buffalo access to forage to meet their nutritional needs and maintain healthy populations for future generations. * This alternative, the WILD BUFFALO TRUST ALTERNATIVE D, meets the Park's mandate from the U.S. Congress to conserve and leave buffalo "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations", Park management policies and directives requiring "protection of ecological processes and native species in a relatively undisturbed environment", is ecosystem based and ecologically sound, and should be fully considered in a supplemental environmental impact statement for the public to review and comment on. (Chapter 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, Appendix E) * Request an extension for the Park to study and develop and disclose the results of this alternative and give the American people time to review and comment. 2. National Park Service's vaccination plan inside Yellowstone National Park threatens the wildness of buffalo. * Vaccinating wild buffalo is part of the framework of the Interagency Bison Management Plan that treats wild buffalo like livestock and not as the national icon they are - AMERICA'S only wild buffalo to continuously occupy their native range. * Every Autumn and in May and June for eighteen weeks over a 30 year period wild buffalo will be closely approached and shot with a vaccine approved for use in cattle not wild buffalo. (Appendix F) * Shooting vaccines into buffalo at close range is another part of the Park's endless intrusion into buffalo's evolutionary adaptation as an indigenous wildlife species. * Government harassment off habitat, capture for slaughter, orphaning calves for a quarantine experiment that commodifies 3 of 4 offspring for America's largest domestic bison rancher Ted Turner, that inhumanely confines and breaks social groups in capture pens, radio collaring, vaginal telemetry, marking wild buffalo with ear tags and paint, and now vaccination of half the population for decades. These are livestock management techniques that impair buffalo's wild character and leads to domestication of an irreplaceable wildlife species. * Vaccinated buffalo will be shot with paint balls or implanted with tags under their hides. (Chapter 2.2.2) * Wild: free natural state of living; a wild primitive state untouched by civilization, self-willed. * For further reference see BFC's Buffalo Bill of Rights: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/aboutbuffalo/buffalobillofrights.html 3. Yellowstone National Park's vaccine could jeopardize America's last wild buffalo population. * Yellowstone National Park is willing to base its decision to vaccinate buffalo on "uncertainty", "incomplete and unavailable" science. (Chapter 4.2) * According to Yellowstone National Park's impact statement: "using less effective vaccines or delivering the vaccine to a relatively small proportion of the eligible animals can lead to adaptive changes in the disease pathogen that select for variants able to evade the immunological response induced by the vaccine. These vaccine-adapted variants can then spread in the population, reduce the efficiency of the vaccination program, and result in longer-term evolutionary changes in the host-pathogen association." (Chapter 4.2) * Additionally, Yellowstone National Park admits: "These aspects of SRB51 and the life history of B. abortus may provide a selective advantage for bacteria whereby SRB51 vaccination becomes ineffective leading to an increase in transmission potential, stronger persistence within the bison host, and greater pathogenicity (i.e., virulence or degree of intensity of the disease produced by a pathogen). This potential adaptation of B. abortus to SRB51 could be exacerbated if delivery via remote vaccination is hampered due to logistics or bison behavior and only a relatively small proportion of the eligible females are vaccinated." (Chapter 4.2) * In other words, vaccinating buffalo with SRB51 could lead to increased levels of brucella abortus transmission in the Yellowstone ecosystem, more virulent forms and stronger persistence of brucella abortus in wild buffalo. * Yellowstone National Park does not disclose or admit what these unknown effects would entail for individual buffalo and the buffalo population as a whole. * Vigilant surveillance might detect this irretrievably bad result for buffalo, but there is no way to "mitigate" a more virulent, persistent, infectious disease arising from Yellowstone National Park's vaccination program. * It is an unacceptable harm and risk that Yellowstone National Park's vaccination program could jeopardize the viability and future of our last wild buffalo population. 4. Vaccinating wild buffalo is culturally unacceptable to American Indian Tribes and to all American's who honor wildlife. * For thousands of years, the greater Yellowstone ecosystem was a traditional territory and shared buffalo hunting grounds for Crow, Eastern Shoshone, Salish and Kootenai, Shoshone-Bannock, Blackfeet, Nez Perce, Northern Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Flathead, and Upper Pend d'Oreille Tribes. (Chapter 3.7) * Yellowstone National Park does not disclose how it intends to "mitigate" traditional cultural concerns raised by Tribes in consultation including: ~ Respectful treatment of the bison, including allowing them to roam freely without fencing or disrespectful hazing. ~ Vaccine contamination of meat for consumption and ceremonial purposes. ~ Preservation of wickiups, stone alignments, and other cultural features associated with bison. * The public trust resource of America's last wild buffalo is to be conserved and protected for future generations. Vaccination, and the Interagency Bison Management Plan from which it originates, diminishes buffalo's ability to live out their life history as a wildlife species and remain wild and free in their native range. 5. Vaccinating wild buffalo inside Yellowstone National Park does not protect the population and will not placate Montana's cattle industry. * Fortunately, buffalo's unique genetic makeup and natural immunity to infectious diseases has served them well since becoming infected with brucella abortus from cattle 100 years ago. (Chapter 2.7) The harm done to buffalo comes not from disease but taxpayer funded government-led slaughter of buffalo in the name of disease risk management in our National Parks and Forests. * As noted in Yellowstone National Park's impact statement, vaccinating buffalo does not satisfy cattle ranchers: "The proposed remote delivery vaccination actions will be implemented with federal funding and will not reduce the seroprevalence of brucellosis sufficiently (i.e., eradication) to alter perceptions of livestock operators, producers, and regulators regarding the risk of brucellosis transmission from bison and elk to cattle." (Executive Summary) * It is misleading to claim that vaccination will lead to greater tolerance for buffalo on habitats outside the Park. Montana has no tolerance for wild buffalo period. In so far, as the U.S. Congress continues to fund Montana's no tolerance position, buffalo will continue to be harassed off their habitat and harmed to make way for a few more head of cattle to graze the buffalo's range. * Rather than further harming our native wild buffalo using tools designed for domestic livestock, the cattle industry must be held accountable for introducing brucellosis to native wildlife and take responsibility for developing an effective brucellosis vaccine for mandatory use in livestock. The cattle industry is, after all, responsible for the presence of brucellosis - and many other diseases- in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Wildlife proof fencing would also prevent commingling of wild elk, buffalo, and domestic cattle. 6. Vaccinating buffalo is a harmful, costly, wasteful and failed strategy as indicated by Yellowstone National Park's own evidence. * SRB51 vaccine causes abortions in females (Palmer et al. 1996). (Appendix C) * Over $9 million taxpayer dollars will be spent over the next 30 years on a vaccine that is ineffective in wild buffalo. Under Yellowstone National Park's environmentally preferred alternative, "approximately 25% of the target group received protection from the vaccine." (Appendix J) * Yellowstone National Park admits in its impact statement: "experiments conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that vaccination with Strain RB51 provides no protection from aborted pregnancies." (Executive Summary) * Yellowstone National Park also admits vaccination is "unlikely to reduce the seroprevalence of brucellosis in wildlife sufficiently (i.e., near zero) to alter the perceptions of livestock operators, producers, and regulators regarding the risk of brucellosis transmission to cattle from wildlife." (Chapter 1.11.2) MORE INFORMATION ONLINE: > Visit BFC's Yellowstone Bison Vaccination Web Page: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/science/vaccinationprogram.html > Read BFC Executive Director Dan Brister's Opinion-Editorial about Why Vaccinating Wild Bison is Wrong: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/press0405/news0405/121304oped.html THANK YOU for taking action on behalf of America's last wild population of buffalo! Please share this alert with others - spread the word to save these herds! Media & Outreach Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 406-646-0070 [email protected] http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org BFC is the only group working in the field every day in defense of the last wild buffalo population in the U.S. KEEP BFC ON THE FRONTLINES WITH A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TODAY https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/6876/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3647 Join Buffalo Field Campaign -- It's Free! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/6876/signUp.jsp?key=3378 Tell-a-Friend: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=3835 Take Action! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26453 Unsubscribe http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2426/t/7926/p/salsa/supporter/unsubscribe/public/?unsubscribe_page_KEY=42