Yellowstone Park Rangers Shoot and Kill Baby Bison
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Buffalo Field Campaign
May 2016

The calf should have been returned to the site where he was taken from, and if the calf was, as reported, approaching cars and being a “nuisance," then the area should have been closed to humans. Even if he did not reunite with his family after that, he would have had a much more honorable and natural death by helping to feed wolves, coyotes, or bear cubs, rather than falling to bullets.

Harmful behaviors from tourists are on the rise: petting buffalo, getting too close for that ‘selfie,’ walking through the Grand Prismatic Springs, or venturing into grizzly bear country and doing all the wrong things: Yellowstone is being loved to death.

A bison calf...

As the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

We have been receiving many emails with concern over the calf killed by Yellowstone park rangers after tourists attempted to “rescue” him. Because we were not there to witness the events, it is difficult to know what actually took place.

Buffalo moms are fierce defenders of their calves, so it’s hard to imagine that a buffalo mom would have allowed her calf to be abducted to begin with, unless she knew the calf was already sick, and had abandoned him.

We also don’t know what sort of effort the park rangers gave in trying to reunite the calf with his family.

Having witnessed many cow/calf separations due to hazing operations, buffalo moms will try everything to reunite with their baby. If they don’t find each other, other buffalo sometimes adopt, and human scent will not cause a buffalo to reject a calf. Without first-hand knowledge, it is very difficult for us to make any conclusions outside of the fact that human interference in a natural setting is a very bad judgement call, and it is critical that we humans listen to the buffalo.

We can’t help but go back to the start, thinking that had this baby been healthy, his mom would never have let anyone get close, much less take him. Should the calf have been shot? No. The calf should have been returned to the site where he was taken from, and if the calf was, as reported, approaching cars and being a “nuisance," then the area should have been closed to humans.

Even if he did not reunite with his family after that, he would have had a much more honorable and natural death by helping to feed wolves, coyotes, or bear cubs, rather than falling to bullets. Either way, the actions of these tourists accelerated or caused the death of this calf, for which they were fined a mere $110. Harmful behaviors from tourists are on the rise: petting buffalo, getting too close for that ‘selfie,’ walking through the Grand Prismatic Springs, or venturing into grizzly bear country and doing all the wrong things: Yellowstone is being loved to death.

---

Return to The Meat and Diary Industries