Thompson; Buffalo Killing,Immoral or Essential 1

Sam Thompson

English

Martin

5/9/17

Buffalo Killing, Immoral or Essential

The American Government has made a deal with the Yellowstone National Park

to remove and potentially killing a certain percentage of the buffalo herd. The

government says that they are testing the buffalo for a disease that can affect the

neighboring cattle. Now the question remains of is it ethically right to murder wild

animals to try and protect domesticated animals, that are breed for human profit. And

while there are many people who demand the government to stop making these deals,

there is many more people that say that the thinning of the herd is a good thing for the

Yellowstone National Park herd. While these two groups are complete opposites when it

comes to the lives of the American Buffalo, thanks to research these two groups can

hopefully see the reasoning behind why the other groups feels the way they do about

what the government and the Yellowstone National Park should do about the buffalo.

The research has helped show that such reasons for being in support of the slaughter of

the yellowstone national park are the economical value of the American Bison, and the

amount of destruction that buffalos cause.The opposing groups reasoning behind not

allowing the government to continue making deals with the Yellowstone National

Park,that the buffalo have still not recovered from being slaughtered in the past ,and

Yellowstone is one of the only habitat type places the buffalo can live, and that it is

cheaper to raise buffalo for slaughter. The research has also shown some reasoning
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that works for either for the slaughter or against the slaughter of the American Buffalo.

After researching, it seems the best solution for the buffalo in Yellowstone National Park

is to continue allowing the government to make deals and kill a percentage of the

buffalo.

The biggest reason that is secretly driving the government to make deals like this

one is money,since the government sent the buffalo to slaughterhouses, and most

people who have tasted buffalo quite enjoy it. Professor David Lulka helps to explains

that some of the issues with buffalo ranches in his scholarly journal The Paradoxical

Nature of Growth in the US Bison Industry, when he stated In contrast to 'amenable

species' such as cattle, pigs and sheep, the federal government does not require bison

products to be inspected before shipping them across state lines. While, at first glance,

this appears unproblematic, many producers choose to have their animals processed

and inspected at a federal slaughterhouse in order to address the safety concerns of

their customers. Unfortunately, since bison are a non-amenable species, the USDA

does not provide free inspections, but rather charges an hourly inspection fee. Knowing

that it is harder for rancher to breed and sell buffalos, and that the regulations are not

the same as for cattle,makes more sense that the government would want to sell to

slaughterhouses. The slaughterhouses allows the public to enjoy buffalo meat, and sells

the buffalo hides to tanneries, at a cheaper price since they are not a ranch they do not

need to deal with that cost of raising the bison, and since they,the government, are

selling the bison they in theory are making money.

On the other hand, breeding an animal for slaughter is highly different than taking

a wild animal from its habitat and sending it to a slaughterhouse solely for human
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consumption, that idea can be seen economically not as smart as using locally bred

buffalo. The wild buffalo are not breed in any way to be eaten by humans, the writers,

Eric W.Sanderson,Kent H. Redford, et al, of The Ecological Future of the North

American Bison:Conceiving Long-Term,Large-Scale Conservation of Wildlife, were able

to shine more light on that subject most bison are raised for meat production,

selectively bred, mixed with cattle genes, separated from natural predators, and

managed as small herds in fenced paddocks(Sanderson). Since most animals that are

raised for consumption are genetically altered to get the best amount of meat, they are

also altered to be immune to certain disease that are harmful to humans. While the wild

bison are monitored for diseases they are not selectively bred to protect humans from

animal/cattle diseases such as mad cow disease. The amount of meat from a wild bison

might also not be the same amount of that comes from a ranch bred bison, so it makes

more sense for the slaughterhouses to buy more often from ranches rather than from

the government via these deals.

Considering that buffalo are often called gentle giants it comes as a surprise

that they are actually quite destructive. Rurik List, gives credit to that reason in their

article, Historic Distribution and Challenges to Bison Recovery in the Northern

Chihuahuan Desert, The private ranchers in the United States and Mexico do not like

bison moving across their land because bison knock down fences (including the

international border fence) and are thought to compete with cattle for grass(List). By

killing a certain percent of the herd of buffalo in Yellowstone, the government is keeping

the herd size smaller, preventing them from having to find bigger grazing lands beyond

the fences.
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It would also make sense to keep the buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, and

allow them to graze where they want to since they are not able to graze in their natural

habitat, prairie lands. In Wildlife Habitat Conservation; Concepts,Challenges,and

Solutions by Michael L. Morrison and Heather A. MAthewson explains that habitat loss

is species specific: an area that becomes uninhabitable for one species might become a

new inhabitable area for another (Morrison). The American Buffalo have to live and

survive in habitats they would not have lived in enterally, because of humans. Humans

have taken the land that buffalos used to roam and covered it in concrete and steel, the

least humans can do is allow the American Buffalo to graze in areas without being shot

In Mexico the bison are occasionally shot or trapped illegally despite their protected

status (SEMARNAT 2002). In New Mexico bison are legally classified as livestock and

are hunted to provide additional ranch income(List).

The slaughter of buffalo has been done throughout American history. Both

Native American and white settlers hunted buffalo for food and hides. The Crow Tribe

made a tradition out of the certain way they killed buffalo, in the article written by Joe

Medicine Crow titled Notes on Crow Indian Buffalo Jump Traditions, he explains that

According to legend, Oldman Coyote, the Culture Teacher of the Crow and Hidatsa,

first taught the people how to kill many buffalo by tricking a herd over a hidden

cliff(Crow). The government should allow the Native American tribes that used to

uphold these traditions,adapt and change the traditions so they are not killing whole

herds, to hunt and perform rituals and rites of passages with the buffalo. A ritual could

be done to honor Oldman Coyote and show thanks for teaching their ancestors how to

hunt easily, the Crow tribe could lead a single or small group of buffalos could be off a
 Thompson; Buffalo Killing,Immoral or Essential 5

cliff. That would also help keep traditions in a more modern world and teach young

Native Americans about their culture and history.

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Hunting buffalo has been in practice since before the arrival of white people in

America but it was made more popular with the arrival of the white people, and the

increasing need for hides, and meat. The mass killings done by both Natives and White

settlers, are the reason why the buffalo are considered Near Threatened but they are

not considered Endangered. They are also not anywhere near the population numbers

they had in the early years of the Americas.The white settlers massacred thousands of

the buffalo, purely for fun, and left the bodies rotting in the sun, making sure no other

person could than use the meat, humans are not scavengers, and the Native American

people that found these fields covered in the carcesses knew not to eat meat that they

themselves did not kill, because they did not know how the animals died and how long it

has been died. Professor Scott M. Taylor gives great insight in his article,Buffalo Hunt:

International Trade and the Virtual Extinction of the North American Bison.While the

nineteenth century is surely one of the most inspirational periods in American history, it

also bears witness to a less flattering record with regard to the environment: most

significantly, the slaughter of the plains bison, or buffalo(Taylor, M. Scott.)The creation

of the train also is what made nineteenth century such a big impact on the slaughtering

of buffalo. It made it much easier to kill more buffalo quicker, since a person could just

shoot them from the moving train car. The American government should be careful

when killing some of the buffalo since they are still near threatened, and make sure they

do not make it endangered, or completely extinct.

The reasoning the government and Yellowstone National Parks officials have

given is that the buffalo can transmit a disease to the neighboring cattle called

Brucellosis. Yet out of all of the buffalo they have test, none of the buffalo have had or
 Thompson; Buffalo Killing,Immoral or Essential 7

carried the disease. But for some reason that is the reason the government gave for

killing the buffalo. Better yet Mary Meagher and Margaret E.Meyer, authors of On the

Origin of Brucellosis in Bison of Yellowstone National Park: A Review, have found that

later investigators suggested that brucellosis might have existed in these bison for a

long time and appeared to have little population effect( Meagher). Now more tests still

need to be taken to give further evidence about the disease, but it seems strange that

none of the buffalo have shown that the carry this disease.

Now the question has been answer of is it ethically right to murder wild animals

to try and protect domesticated animals, that are breed for human profit, the

government says yes, but for the wrong reasons. It makes sense that the government

does not want to say the reason is for money, rather to save other animals. Is it

unethical to kill the buffalo, is like asking if it is unethical to fish or hunt a deer, different

people will have different opinions. The best thing the government should do is like what

they have done for hunting and fishing, set regulations to make it so that by thinning the

herd the Yellowstone National park is making the herd stronger,by getting rid of the

injured and old, simulating how a predator would hunt and thin the herd that way, not

just taking random buffalo and killing them. By getting rid of the injured and old that

makes less competition for the younger, healthier buffalo allowing them to thrive better.

The government should focus more on saving the wild buffalo, make it easier for

ranchers to raise buffalo and sell them, than just trying to make shady deals with

National parks that house buffalos to get easy money, and allow the Native American

tribes to know that one of their culture symbols will not die off. Especially since the lives
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of the American Buffalo are metaphorically linked to the lives of the Native American

people.

Adams, Sam. From kings of the American plains to piles of sun-Bleached bones:

How mass slaughter by hunters nearly wiped out the buffalo. Daily Mail

Online, Associated Newspapers, 25 Jan. 2013,

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un-bleached-bones-How-mass-slaughter-hunters-nearly-wiped-buffalo.html.

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May 2017.

Clark, Tom. Bison Skull Pile. Tom Clark Beyond the Pale, 21 Sept. 2011,

tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/bison-skull-pile.html. Accessed 8 May

2017.

Crow, Joe Medicine. NOTES ON CROW INDIAN BUFFALO JUMP TRADITIONS.

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Mathewson, Heather A., and Michael L. Morrison. Wildlife habitat conservation:

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Chihuahuan Desert. Conservation Biology, vol. 21, no. 6, 2007, pp. 14871494.,
 Thompson; Buffalo Killing,Immoral or Essential 9

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