I'm surprised they didn't take it home to nurse it. Now it's dead.

Why the Yellowstone bison calf had to be killed

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Sure you did

Yea read that a few days ago. Shame. Should put those people down too, just as a reminder

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In the summer of 2003, we had a family vacation in Yellowstone. The level of epic stupidity displayed with regard to the hot springs, acid pools, wild animals, and all sorts of other things that make the place what it is was staggering. I had to work very hard a couple of times to avoid showing my cranky side and lack of patience to people who need to be left crying in public.

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NHI, 10-8.

Some people are so stupid they should not be allowed in public.

There's no excuse for putting a wild bison calf in your SUV. Those folks should be dragged from the bumper of said vehicle through several miles of fresh bison poop.

That said, I'm a bit confused why that calf couldn't have been brought to a rehab facility or zoo or some such place when it could have been raised in captivity. Seems like putting it down was almost as senseless as throwing it in a car. I'm sure there was a valid reason that's above my simple mind, but I haven't heard it yet.

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paws for friendship

They don't mention it in the article, but it's likely the Park Rangers dragged the calf carcass out into the park so the scavengers could eat it.

They always leave that part out in the Disney movies.

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

You aren't alone in your confusion. Yellowstone's Public Affairs Office released a statement giving their reasons for euthanising the calf. You can read the gist of it here, and you can judge for yourself whether it's valid or not. I will warn you in advance, it will make you sad.

For whatever it's worth, I'm not buying into their rationale. At all. It's hard for me to believe that Yellowstone doesn't have even the basic facilities for animal quarantine and the funds to have transported the buffalo calf to another, safer location. It all just sounds like more federal obfuscation to me.

I'm also extremely angry that those foreign tourists were only fined a couple of hundred bucks and let go. But we don't want to offend foreign visitors, now do we? They might not return and spend their money here.

I personally think they should have been arrested and charged. Ban them forever from any and all national parks, national forests, wildlife sanctuaries, zoos, etc. in this country. They do not deserve the privilege of enjoying this country's natural beauty and wildlife.

But if we can't ban them from our national parks, perhaps we could return them for another visit to Yellowstone and introduce them to a big ol' buffalo bull during mating season.

Or let them find out how fast a grizzly can run when he's chasing down a meal.

Let them learn why wildlife is wild.

My thoughts exactly !!

Yes !!! Stupid of folks to put it in their SUV.
But also, They could have found a rehab facility
or person who does this work, (my brother does it here)
"if they had wanted".
Maybe the Park Service wanted this ending to prove a point ?
Hope not.


Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

I am guessing someone had some tender Bison back straps.

Wolves and coyotes gotta eat.

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- Change it back -

To quote John Travolta's character in "Battlefield Earth" :-

"Stupid humans!"

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Release the Kraken

This is just my guess, but the Yellowstone bison herd is a herd of WILD bison. They are the only original wild herd in the U.S.

Their have been a lot of cases of Brucelosis (sp) in this herd. This disease can be spread to domestic cattle.

I would be willing to bet that the risk of infecting animals outside of the Yellowstone area wasn't worth sending this buffalo to a zoo or other facility.

Wingmaster

I grew up near Yellowstone. We used to go up there on the weekends, not to see the wildlife but to watch the tourists. Back in those days the black bears still panhandled along the roads and the tourists were way more entertaining than the bears. Never saw any of them (tourists, that is) get killed but a couple came pretty close. STUPID!! I guess some things never change.

As to the calf, Wingmaster has it exactly right. Brucellosis is a serious disease that can pass to cattle from buffalo. It causes cows to abort their calves and folks here are very, very sensitive about it. The calf would have had to be quarantined for months before it could move to a rehab situation, even if there was one to found. Park policy is usually to let nature take its course, and I suspect they would have done that here if that calf hadn't been hanging around in public view with all that publicity.

Thanks Wingmaster and Wyo for telling the story the way the NPS should have. They could have saved themselves much ill will.

Edited to add: I just can't let this go. We have many friends who have been or still are wildlife professionals and NPS employees. The rangers involved with putting that little bison down didn't do it with a cheery heart. And now their taking a ton of bull stuff for doing their job.

As regards the tourists, I can hear Mom saying, "Bob, if you don't have something good to say, don't say anything at all."

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

We went thru Yellowstone last summer. Saw lots of semi wild animals and some dumb tourists. One small black bear cub was following the sow and ran back across the road and stayed in the ditch when cars approached. we were about 25 cars back, 2 lane, both lanes had idioso's getting out to photograph the cub. We did not get out. One idiot, I know he's not a member here because he was, well, an idiot. he ran after the Sow taking pictures, he was between her and the cub forcing her deep into the forest the opposite direction.

He came back smiling like he was Tarzan or some other fool. I'm thinking the sow could have wiped that smile off his traffic blocking face in one quick charge. What was she thinking, that would have made nice photos.

Also did she come back for the stranded cub? PT Barnum was right, a fool is born every minute.

This article is different. I had read in another article that the mom of the calf died and the calf was alone when the tourists found it. It also said the calf could have been given antibiotics in case it had brucellosis but again the parks don't do that. I think many of us would be upset upon seeing a distressed calf without a herd, so although it was not smart to touch a wild animal I can understand their sympathy. It is difficult to see any animal suffering. The other article I read said that the calf was found dead the next day but this one says they "euthanized" it. Which was it?

They have a strict policy of letting nature take it's course. Same reason why they let some forest fires burn without putting them out and why they let insect infestations kill off the last species of a kind of tree. I understand it but don't agree with it.

I've been to Yellowstone several times and there are always plenty of dummies. All you have to do is talk to a ranger by any of the thermal pools and they'll tell you about the dogs and people that get killed each year. Way before facebook, I was there with my family. A dad was trying to get his kids closer to the alpha Elk buck (about 5 ft away) so he could get a better picture. They had also let their dog out of the car without a leash and it was running up to the Elk barking. My mom gave that dad an earful and told him it would take just one swift kick for that elk to split their dogs head open or a split second for it to gore one of his children. His face when white and he put his kids and dog in the car and rushed off. My mom always spoke her mind especially when it came to animals and children.

"humans".....the intelligent species.....

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There's nowt so queer as folk

It’s a shame the little bison was put down. There are ways to save an animal that has been rejected by its mama or the herd. Seems like the folks at Yellowstone didn’t want to take the time. Those people who messed with the bison calf are what we call out here, “Townies”.

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A gun has no brain.. use yours

When I was a kid, we visited Yellowstone. Remember the old VW Beetle? Saw a guy throwing crackers on top of it, to get a picture of the bear on the other side of the car standing on its back legs to eat the cracker. Cracker kept sliding off the car, idiot keep throwing more on top of it, etc. Dad packed us up, said we needed to go. He figured things were about to get real ugly.
Stupid humans is right.

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Reg. Magnum wants/Rossi wallet

Check again. There's a herd of woodland buffalo in the Henry Mountains in Utah. Still pristine, as in unmolested. Probably more so than Yellowstone.

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Dick Burg

The Yellowstone Bison herd is the only herd that has never been exterminated and reintroduced.

The herd in the Henry Mountains was reintroduced with bison from the Yellowstone herd.

Wingmaster

I thought I read a couple weeks ago that there were an excess in the # of those animals??

Maybe killing that one was just a simple way to get the # back in line??

They said, no facilities and it would have to be in quarantined for x number of weeks for, I believe Brucellosis, which is harmful to domestic cattle.

I was not doing anything and would have camped out to bottle feed it and bring it home.

Another case of, we're the Gov and are here to help you.

Do what they want due to lack of penalties for what they do....

Goof ball Ranger Smith of Yogi the bear made the decision to euthanize the little buffalo, if a civilian, another name for serf at times, made the same decision for the same reason, they would be demonified and sit in the late old John Gotti's cell.

The park bison herd has become way to large. I believe they plan to "thin" it by about 30%. In other words thousands of then are fixing to die anyway. At this point the park is not much more natural than a. City park. Want to really do your part for Yellowstone park? Stay away very from it and leave it alone. Just a giant tourist trap now

Coulda fooled me.

The stupidity has gotten to such an epic level that there was a news story last night on one of the stations from Seattle (King 5, we get it on cable) that was obviously an education piece from the folks at Yellowstone about how the Park is not a petting zoo. The ranger did a good job of trying to explain how so much of the U.S. is now urbanized that many people really don't get the concept of "wild".

I bet if we let a few of the really dumb ones become examples when they get too close to a bear sow with cubs, or try to pet a Bison, and then send them as viral videos, some learning would occur. To the extent it didn't, well, Darwin is a harsh teacher. The oxygen thieves would not be a loss.

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NHI, 10-8.

Should have treated them the same way Australia treated Amber Heard & Jonny Depp in "the War on Terrier" -- charged, out on bond, and did a PSA on why they shouldn't have smuggled their two Yorkies into the country. Having seen how tourists act in Yellowstone, I think the problem has a Darwinian solution.

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50 Years of DSOTM