The 2003 Montana Legislature approved the creation of a bison hunting season. The season was supposed to begin on January 15.
However, largely at the urging of Montana's newly elected governor, Brian Schweitzer, the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission voted to cancel this year's bison hunt, citing the likely public relations nightmare the hunt would have caused for Montana. In addition, Governor Schweitzer expressed that the hunt would do little to address disease or population management issues.
The hunt represented another senseless management strategy in Montana's misguided battle against Yellowstone's magnificent bison. The state and the National Park Service continue to slaughter bison to ostensibly protect cattle from brucellosis despite the fact that there has been no documented case of brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle in the wild and that the risk of such transmission is negligible.
Although cancellation of the hunt is a temporary reprieve from one assault, the ongoing, unnecessary capture-slaughter regime continues.
Click here for more information on the mismanagement of Yellowstone bison.
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