Charlie the Buffalo

By Sandra Stoner

Last week I finished reading one of those books that leaves an imprint on you. You know, the kind that you spend time quality time thinking about weeks, months, even years later. The book was R.D. Rosen’s A Buffalo in the House, and it inspired me in several ways.

The story of Charlie the buffalo being hand-raised by an extremely interesting, dedicated couple was awesome to say the least. Their work alone showed a compassion to animals that I believe is very important in the movement to protect our endangered species.

Even more inspiring though was the history behind the American buffalo. I learned that buffalo in our country once numbered at least 40 million, but now a total of less than 10,000 exist in the wild. This is solely due to the fact that European settlers massacred them.

And yet, quite astonishingly, the American Buffalo is not on the Endangered Species list. In fact, Buffalo are still being killed every year near one of their last homes, Yellowstone National Park.
The park of course has borders that are drawn out on maps and state boundaries, and for the past 20 years the state of Montana has been shooting buffalo who ‘carelessly’ wander onto their property. Montana officials claim that these buffalo are killed because of their ability to transmit disease (specifically Brucellosis) to cattle. However, scientists have proven that Brucellosis can only be transmitted through the fetus; that is, a cow must lick an infected Buffalo fetus within an hour of birth. This is not only rare, but it has never been documented. Even more interesting, elk also carry the disease but have not been targeted by Montana officials for crossing the man-made border into their state.

Last winter, Montana authorities shot and killed 1,616 American Buffalo. This is documented by the Buffalo Field Campaign (http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/) Unfortunately, Yellowstone National Park rangers do not condemn Montana’s insistence on killing Buffalo and instead support it.

This type of discrimination in the area of animal rights is frustrating. Why are some animals protected while others are ignored? Yellowstone prides itself on the fact that it has returned wolves to its forests (wolves were originally eradicated in the early part of the 20th century), and yet the park continues to disregard the buffalo.

In circumstances like these it is important for people like you and me to stand up and demand change. We all know and understand that biodiversity is crucial to a healthy environment, so let’s be sure to protect animals that are important links in the whole of life.

Here are several websites that provide more information on animal injustice throughout the world:
Great Plains Restoration Council: http://www.gprc.org/
International Fund for Animal Welfare: http://www.ifaw.org/splash.php
Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell/