Yellowstone’s Bison and Wolves Are Paying The Ultimate Price

What is causing the decline of America’s keystone species and the wild places they call home?  The answer may be right under your nose, or more accurately, on your dinner plate.

by Rita M. 

There are lots of ways to support animal welfare causes.  You can donate to organizations like Pasado’s Safe Haven to help continue our many programs, you can adopt a rescued dog or cat from a shelter and save that animal from euthanasia, or you can refuse to wear clothes made from seal skin in support of the ban on hunting.  With all of these noble and compassionate gestures, there is a one-to-one, clearly defined relationship between your action and the consequences on the animals that will ultimately benefit.  However, not all relationships are this linear. 
 

Conversely, your actions may have completely unintended deleterious effects on the animals you wish to protect.  It takes a little more information to understand the nexus between you and the decisions you make every day, and animals like Bison and Gray Wolves in far-away places like Yellowstone National Park.  You might be surprised to know how closely those two things are related.

Keystone species like American Buffalo and Gray Wolves are in a daily fight for their lives as they compete for ever-diminishing habitat.  Their primary rival?  Humans.  Not directly, but indirectly because the domestic cattle and sheep raised for our consumption need to graze on that same land.  When Bison and Wolves wander beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone looking for food, they are marked for death.  Wolves are shot on site and Bison can be shot or rounded up and sent to slaughter. 

A quarter of Yellowstone’s Bison have died this way, just this year.  The slaughter is meant to protect domestic cattle from a disease called brucellosis which can cause a cow to abort her calf.  The cruel irony is that it’s the cattle that transmitted this disease to Bison in the first place.  It should be noted here that there has never been a documented case of transmission from Bison to cattle.  However, the monetary damages to a cattle rancher could be enormous if it were to happen, so a zero tolerance policy has been in effect for many decades.  The cost to the last wild herd of Bison in the US has been incalculable.    

Sheep ranchers are equally diligent in killing any predator that might impact his bottom line.  Commodities like wool and mutton get to market by spilling the blood of the once-protected Gray Wolf.  Until recently the Gray Wolf was considered an endangered species and under federal law could only be killed by Federal Fish and Wildlife agents.  Now that the wolf has been delisted, it’s much easier to shoot and kill these magnificent creatures.  Indeed, as soon as their protection was lifted earlier this month, the slaughter began in earnest. 

Then there are the countless cows and sheep caught in the middle of this gruesome dance between ranchers and the wild animals that occupy “their” land.  Each member of the herd and each member of the flock is destined for someone’s dinner plate.  Unlike Daisy or Cotton, members of Pasado's family, these animals have no hope for a long and peaceful existence.

Many people have never had the opportunity to spend time with a cow or sheep, but for those of us who have, it would unthinkable to see them in any other way than a dignified and intelligent creature worthy of our respect and compassion.

When it comes to protecting our wild friends, the best thing we can do is to refrain from eating our domestic friends.  If there is no demand for meat there will be no reason to eliminate the very creatures we should be protecting.

The Gray Wolf deserves full protection under the Endangered Species Act.  Ask the US Fish and Wildlife Service to relist the Gray Wolf and protect them from the deadliest predator on earth, humans.  Send your message of support here.