Fw: *Let Freedom Roam: A Plea for An American Icon

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*Let Freedom Roam: A Plea for An American Icon

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Buffalo Field Campaign

Stop the Slaughter

Wednesday, January 18, 2006 7:52 AM

*Let Freedom Roam: A Plea for An American Icon

 

 

PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL STAMPEDE ON TO ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS!

 

 

Buffalo Field Campaign

West Yellowstone, Montana

Working in the field every day to stop the

slaughter of Yellowstone's wild free roaming buffalo

 

 

 

We are blessed to live in America. Can you spare 3 minutes to read the

following, then act to save a beautiful & historic piece of it?

 

PLEA FOR AN AMERICAN ICON: Pass this message on!

 

He lay alone all night in the bitter cold with two broken legs before bullets

ended his life. Others have been shot in their beds. Twelve were forced onto

thin lake ice; they broke through and two drowned while their companions, in

utter terror, struggled to pull themselves from the frigid water. Elsewhere, 300

were rounded up on their native soil, inhumanely incarcerated, and sentenced to

death.

 

Does this sound like a planned campaign of persecution and extermination?

Perhaps a government-sanctioned attempt to destroy a population? Something that

could happen only in a repressive and brutal regime?

 

Friends, it's happening in America. It's happening in Montana and Yellowstone

National Park. It's happening to an American symbol of strength and freedom, to

our nation's last wild, free-roaming buffalo, the American bison, who once

roamed our land in the tens of millions.

 

 

 

Most Americans are unaware that only 23 bison escaped the mass extermination of

the 1870s, finding refuge from extinction in the world's first national park.

Yellowstone's bison are the genetically-pure descendents of those 23 survivors,

our nation's last continuously-wild herd.

 

Today, under assault again, they need help from people of conscience. In the

park, they are beloved wildlife. But their migratory instinct leads them to

lower elevation land in Montana to escape the park's harsh winter. Here they are

greeted with capture, quarantine, experimentation, bullets, and slaughter.

Family groups are torn apart. Mothers and babies are separated. They suffer

terror and injury as they are hazed and harassed relentlessly with snowmobiles,

ATVs, helicopters...

 

 

 

Where does this happen? In Yellowstone National Park and on surrounding public

land...land belonging to ALL Americans, whether we live near or far.

 

Who is perpetrating this? The State of Montana. The National Forest Service.

Even the National Park Service itself!

 

 

Why is this happening? The politically-powerful Montana livestock industry sees

bison as competition for grazing resources. They claim that bison will infect

their cattle with brucellosis (a bacterial cattle disease), but this has never

occurred in the wild, never once since cattle first infected bison in the early

1900s.

 

 

Who pays for this? YOU do " the American taxpayer " at over $3 million per year.

 

 

 

What can YOU do? If you do nothing else, pass this message on to your e-mail

contacts across the country and around the world. But if you want to learn more,

visit http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/action.html

 

 

 

Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers are in the field every day documenting the

activities that pass for bison management in Montana (view video footage at the

website), and working for the day when these beautiful native creatures are

welcomed home onto designated habitat where they are truly free to roam

America's public land. Sign up for weekly BFC up-dates at:

bfc-media Subject line: " Subscribe.

 

" Want to do more? Consider writing to one or both of the following:

 

Gov. Brian Schweitzer: (406) 444-3111,

http://governor.mt.gov/contact/comments.asp (Montana is responsible for hazing,

hunting, capture & quarantine, & slaughter.) In your own words, ask the governor

to designate bison habitat and manage bison as America's treasured wildlife

using science, not politics.

 

 

Suzanne Lewis, Superintendent, Yellowstone (307) 344-2002, suzanne_lewis

(Yellowstone is responsible for capture within the park & shipment to

slaughter.) In your own words, ask Ms. Lewis to stop killing bison to prevent

them from leaving the park, contrary to everything the national park stands for.

 

 

Edward Abbey said, " A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against

his government. " In defending America's last wild bison, we stand up to greed

and dishonesty. We stand up for justice and the enduring qualities embodied in

our great nation's symbol of freedom, the magnificent American bison.

 

 

KEEP IT GOING! PASS THIS MESSAGE ON

 

 

SPREAD THE WORD TO SAVE THE HERD!

 

 

 

Learn More at: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/action.html

 

--

Buffalo Field Campaign

P.O. Box 957

West Yellowstone, MT 59758

406-646-0070

bfc-media

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.