Maria Daines
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1/5/2007 2:16:18 PM
Buffalo Field Campaign Newsletter
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
January 4, 2007
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Why are they killing the last wild buffalo?
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/issueinbrief.html
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In this Issue:
* Update from the Field
* For the Love of Buffalo ~ Valentines Day Cards Available!
* Colorado Ski Package Auction to Benefit BFC!
* BFC Wish List
* Last Words
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* Update From the Field
Dear Buffalo Friends,
As I stepped out of my lodge this morning, I was greeted by the nearly full moon setting in the western sky against a background of mountains lit up by the dawn sun. It is a helpful reminder that the world we live in is a magical and beautiful place that should not be taken for granted. Sometimes, it is easy to get wrapped up in all of the wrongs and injustices that people have heaped up on the planet and its other inhabitants. It is easy to forget to take time to let in the sacred when facing the challenges of daily life. However, meeting this challenge is one of the great lessons of our time here with the buffalo, and especially our time here with each other. We are truly blessed to have this opportunity and we give thanks to all who help make it possible through your love, prayers, contributions and eternal dedication to the protection of our buffalo brothers and sisters.
The buffalo "hunt" continued this week with the beginning of the next two-week season and the final days of the first six-week season. Unfortunately, with hordes of hunters in town and one last shot at filling their tags, one of the four bulls we had been watching in the Yellowstone Village housing area was shot after he wandered onto nearby National Forest lands. It is the nature of the buffalo to roam and it is also their right as living beings on earth to have that freedom. In mourning our lost friend, we remember that he was living according to an age-old tradition of wandering wild buffalo. No other buffalo were killed in the West Yellowstone area this week and there are no signs of any buffalo other than the three that remain in Yellowstone Village. Twenty either sex (trophy bull) tags were issued for this hunt period, along with five cow/calf tags.
Opening day of the buffalo "hunt" in Gardiner was quite a different story. Four big buffalo bulls were shot in the Eagle Creek area near Yellowstone's border. The buffalo were together as a group of six mature bulls utilizing winter range that had formerly been protected. One by one, four of the buffalo were shot until only two remained. Those two remaining bulls, without their four brethren, are no longer in the Eagle Creek area, deciding to leave the killing fields for the time being. One more "either sex" tag remains for Gardiner along with five "cow/calf" tags. There are not, nor have their recently been, any mixed groups of buffalo in the Eagle Creek area.
As it is our duty to be the eyes and ears for the world about the slaughter of America's only continuously free roaming, genetically strong, wild buffalo, BFC volunteers will continue to report on the details of the buffalo "hunt." However, this hunt is only one, albeit egregious, aspect of the overall plan to harass, kill and otherwise control wild buffalo in the United States. The hunt is just "one more tool in the toolbox" to prevent buffalo
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