PICK UP THE PHONE AND TAKE ACTION FOR THE LAST WILD BUFFALO! * National Call-In Day Tomorrow! Thursday February 2, 2006 (8:30-5:00 MST) America's first national park, Yellowstone, is a world heritage site, biosphere reserve and home to the country's last wild and migrating herd of buffalo. It is also the site of the worst buffalo slaughter since the winter of 1996-1997. Yellowstone has taken these recent actions to "protect" one landowner's livestock interests. With this year's wild buffalo migration just beginning; more wild buffalo slaughter is very likely to happen again soon. This behavior by the National Park Service is outrageously unacceptable and everyone who cares about wild buffalo must make their voices heard for the last wild herd! Review video of what Yellowstone has been doing our last wild buffalo: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/bisonhunt/bisonhuntvideo/stephens0106.mov JOIN US FOR A NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY, TOMORROW, THURSDAY, February 2! Citizens across the country are urged to join friends at BFC, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Humane Society of the United States and other wild bison advocates to rattle the cages of two responsible parties: Yellowstone National Park and the Church Universal & Triumphant. Make their phones ring off the hook in the name of the last wild buffalo! WHO TO CALL: 1. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS (307-344-2002) Tell her that the National Park Service is mandated to protect bison, not slaughter them for the sake of livestock interests. Tell her that Yellowstone's participation in the slaughter of the last wild buffalo is shameful and unacceptable. Tell her that the Park should work to secure critical habitat for wild buffalo outside of Park boundaries. Just speak from your heart for the buffalo and tell her how you feel. 2. CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT (CUT), KATE GORDON, PRESIDENT (800-245-5445) Tell CUT to finalize the agreement that was started in 1999 and to coexist with wild buffalo. Remind CUT that they took millions from the American people and that money was exchanged for land to be used by wildlife, including wild buffalo. WHY THESE CALLS FOR THE WILD BUFFALO ARE SO CRITICAL: Since mid-January, Yellowstone National Park has captured and killed more than one-tenth of the existing herd of the country's last wild buffalo. Yellowstone National Park captured 672 wild buffalo in the Stephens Creek Capture Facility, located inside the boundaries of the world's first national park, sending 583 to slaughter and 87 wild bison calves to a quarantine facility, 50 percent of which will be slaughtered. Brucellosis is the supposed reason for the aggressive management scheme. There has never been a case of any wild buffalo transmitting the European livestock disease, brucellosis, back to the cattle they got it from. The burden should not be the wild buffalo's! The livestock industry should take responsibility and practice cattle-based risk management. More info is at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS (307-344-2002) CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT (CUT), KATE GORDON, PRESIDENT (800-245-5445) The National Park Service touts the Interagency Bison Management Plan as justification for their actions, yet the plan is, in part, set up to protect a wild, free-roaming herd of buffalo. "Free-roaming" and "wild" mean migration for buffalo, but the Park Service blocks this natural motion, like damming a great river. So they do not protect. They harm. They impair. The buffalo shouldn't find a foe in the National Park Service, yet there is no friendship. Instead of being a voice for the last wild buffalo, the Park Service has become a puppet for cattle business. The Plan states that the Park Service "may" kill, it doesn't state that they MUST. They have a choice. They have wrongly chosen slaughter. The people must act. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS (307-344-2002) CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT (CUT), KATE GORDON, PRESIDENT (800-245-5445) Our last wild buffalo are being denied habitat and dying because of less than 200 cattle that graze along the Park's northern boundary near Gardiner, Montana - land that was supposed to benefit wild buffalo. The Royal Teton Ranch, owned by the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), lies in the middle of North America's largest migration corridor, just across the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. In 1999, U.S. taxpayers spent $13 million for conservation easements that would allow wild buffalo and other wildlife to access this migration corridor along portions of CUT's property. Yet, the buffalo continue to die. The American people were lead to believe that the money spent would benefit buffalo, but nothing has changed. CUT got the $13 million and the buffalo got killing fields. CUT is beginning to feel some pressure about their involvement in wild buffalo slaughter, and we must keep it on. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS (307-344-2002) CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT (CUT), KATE GORDON, PRESIDENT (800-245-5445) How many more buffalo must die before the injustice to their species ends? How long will the people stand for the livestock industry controlling our wildlife and wild lands? How much longer will the American people and the wild buffalo have to take the insults from our National Park Service? We must all raise our voices together in defense of the last wild buffalo! YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK SUPERINTENDENT SUZANNE LEWIS (307-344-2002) CHURCH UNIVERSAL & TRIUMPHANT (CUT), KATE GORDON, PRESIDENT (800-245-5445) Thank you for making these important phone calls and for your support of our efforts to protect the last wild buffalo left in America. Please spread the word to save the herd! With the Buffalo, Buffalo Field Campaign -- Media & Outreach Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758 406-646-0070 bfc-media@wildrockies.org http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org BFC is the only group working in the field every day to defend the last wild herd of buffalo in America. STOP THE HUNT! Call Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer: Phone #: 406-444-3111 Stay informed! Get our weekly email Updates from the Field: Send your email address to Stop-the-Slaughter-on@vortex.wildrockies.org BOYCOTT BEEF! It's what's killing wild buffalo. Speak Out! Contact politicians and involved agencies today! http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/politicians.html Write a Letter to the Editor of key newspapers! http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/lte.html Help the buffalo by recycling your used cell phones & printer cartridges! It's free and easy. http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/support/recycleprint.html.