Reprinted from Buffalo Field Campaign.The U.S. federal overseer of the livestock industry - USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) - has released an Environmental Assessment nine months after acquiring 53 wild American buffalo from Yellowstone National Park for use in birth control experiments. APHIS intends to capture more wild buffalo - up to 108 - from the Yellowstone region over the next few years. The livestock disease brucellosis is once again being used as the excuse to cause abusive, invasive harm to these last wild buffalo and we must all act now to stand in their defense! APHIS's real intentions with this study are to initiate population controls of an ecologically extinct wildlife species.
If APHIS gets their way, they will use these buffalo in experiments with the pesticide birth-control chemical GonaCon, a dangerous pesticide stringently regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Currently, GonaCon is only approved for use in white-tailed deer. Wild bison are not "pests" in need of population control and any and all brucellosis management should be focused on livestock. Wild bison are an ecologically extinct species and the population existing in and around Yellowstone is made up of America's last continuously wild herds.
TAKE ACTION! Use the talking points below to build your own comments and let APHIS know that you strongly oppose this plan and any involvement they have with America's last wild, free-born buffalo!
If you prefer, you can send your comments directly to:
Dr. Donald E. Herriott
USDA-APHIS Veterinary Services
ATTN: Evaluation of GonaCon EA
208 North Montana Avenue
Suite 101
Helena, MT 59601
EAComments@aphis.usda.gov
I hereby submit my comments on your Environmental Assessment "Evaluation of GonaCon."
I am requesting an extension of the public comment period, which has been woefully inadequate for meaningful public comment.
Having secretly obtained fifty-three wild bison during May of 2011 for use in this proposed study, your EA should have come out long before now. Why did it take you so long to release this EA? This EA should have been available for public comment *before* you underhandedly acquired permits - and wild buffalo - from Yellowstone National Park! You stole buffalo from the American public, from the wild, without any notice or assessment of the impact your experimental plans would make. And you also (again) failed to adequately notify the public that this Environmental Assessment was even available, which makes it clear that you don't want the public's opinion because you sincerely believe you are above the law and accountable to no one. I would like to remind you that as a federally funded government agency you are accountable to me and all American people.
I am appalled by APHIS's plans to sterilize wild American buffalo and I strongly urge you to choose the "No Action" alternative.
Wild bison don't need your control over their population. Wild bison are ecologically extinct throughout their native historic range, and anything that hampers their ability to flourish will drive them towards extinction. I will not stand by and allow you to do this.
Only one population of the wildlife species remains in Yellowstone country, and you seek to do them further harm. There is no "overpopulation" of wild buffalo, and they certainly do not need any more interference in their life cycles. You do enough harm already, and I absolutely oppose any attempts by APHIS or anyone to debilitate their fertility.
It is ludicrous to think that your plans will in any way address the issue of brucellosis. Are elk next? Then deer? If APHIS wants to prevent livestock from getting brucellosis, then you should manage the livestock, develop an effective brucellosis vaccine for cattle, mandate that vaccine's use for cattle, and do everything you can to manage livestock in a manner that protects WILDLIFE from livestock diseases! I urge you to work with other agencies to shut down government-run wildlife feed lots in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and remove livestock from conflict areas - especially public lands - where wildlife should be thriving.
I ask that you fully disclose the cost to the U.S. taxpayer for undertaking this unwanted experiment. I also ask that you reveal future plans of action should your experiment be carried out, what will APHIS plans for the future be for using GonaCon on wild bison?
Your EA fails to disclose important information about GonaCon. This is a pesticide heavily regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and as it now stands, its use is only approved in white-tailed deer that suffer inhabitting urban settings. Where is the documentation from the EPA that permits APHIS to use GonaCon on wild bison?
Your scare tactics of explosively exaggerating the so-called human health threat of brucellosis are also shameful, and you have seriously inflated your numbers as to the prevalence of brucellosis in wild bison. You make it up to suit your agenda.
Like the Montana Department of Livestock, APHIS has no business imposing itself on wildlife. Every aspect of your agency is harmful to wildlife.
I oppose your manipulation of America's wild bison's evolutionary potential and natural adaptation. Leave them alone. Turn your sights on the cattle that are overrunning this country and ruining the land, the water and destroying wildlife populations, as well as human health.
Your experiments on wild bison are unwelcome and unwanted. Bison are not your test subjects to toy with. Neither the American public nor the global community appreciates your heavy-handed approach.
APHIS creates disasters every time you touch wild bison. Leave them alone and stick to your own job of overseeing the livestock industry.
In closing, APHIS has failed to provide information that convinces me that this study is warrented in any way. You have failed to disclose critical information associated with this study, and you have failed to demonstrate a need, and have also failed to articulate where APHIS will go from here once your experiment is complete.
APHIS has also failed to consider the dire impacts that your study will have on the viability of America's last continuously wild population of American bison. This is an ecologically extinct population, the last continuously wild herds, and there is absolutely no grounds for the use in GonaCon or any manipulation of bison's fertility or sexual behavior by USDA APHIS or any agency.
Therefore, APHIS must choose the "NO ACTION" alternative, release the 53 wild buffalo you have now in custody at Corwin Springs, and abandon any future plans to acquire any more.
Get back to overseeing livestock, as this is your charge.
