Proposed bison slaughter quashed by feds

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A plan to slaughter 4,200 bisons in Wood Buffalo National Park ha been quashed.

The likely alternative, said the grand chief of Treaty 8, is a proposal by Treaty 8 chiefs to quarantine the bison in the 44,800 km park, which straddles the border between Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

Frank Halcrow, after meeting with federal Environment Minister Robert de Cotret and Agriculture Minister Don Mazankowski in Edmonton Oct. 26, said the federal government "finally went at the problem in the most reasonable way."

Natives condemned a federal report released Aug. 29 which called for the slaughter of the world's largest free-roaming herd of bison. A federal environmental panel recommended the herd, which is infected with tuberculosis and brucellosis, be herded into corrals and shot.

Reconsideration came after a memo from the wardens and staff at Wood Buffalo, describing flaws in the Agriculture Canada plan, was leaked. Agriculture Canada originally proposed the slaughter of the plains and wood buffalo.

The current plan, if accepted by the federal cabinet, will see the animals herded into pens, tested for the disease and killed if they are infected.. It is estimated 10 to 50 per cent of the bison are diseased.

Ian Rutherford, actin assistant deputy minister for the Canadian Parks Services, said he's hopeful the plan, which many cost more than the original $20 million plan, will be affective.

"The view within government is general is that the plan looks like a promising avenue for eliminating the disease without eliminating all the bison. I'm confident the alternative proposed by the Native chiefs will be accepted."

But a University of Alberta wildlife disease specialist said the plan will not work. William Samuel said the only way to get rid of the disease, which causes pregnant animals to abort, is to eliminate the entire population.

"They won't be able to corral all the bison. It only takes one infected bison to spread the disease."

Samuel is concerned the disease may spread to healthy bison in the MacKenzie Bison Sanctuary about 100 km north of the park.

He said the government was forced to scrap the slaughter plan because "they can't afford to shoot the bison with their low standings in the polls."

He doubts whether the government fully understands the biological consequences of its political decisions.

A spokesman for the Alberta Fish and Game Association said the yet-to-be finalized plan is "a waste of time and money." Neils Damgaard said there is no need to kill the bison at all because "the disease hasn't spread for 50 years."

He claimed the original slaughter proposal was not scientific but was aimed at "increasing Agriculture Canada's productivity."

The wood buffalo, said Damgaard, is a stumbling block to Agriculture Canada's productivity."

Agriculture Canada is concerned the infected bison may spread the diseases to cattle in the area leading to a loss of Canada's disease-free status ad harming beef experts.

"If they (the government) were using sound scientific reasoning, they would have decided to leave the bison alone. They shouldn't have been messing around up there in the first place," Said Damgaard. The disease was introduced to the park in the 1920s when 6,000 plains buffalo were transferred from central Alberta to the park because of a lack of grazing land. The plains buffalo, infected with tuberculosis and brucellosis, then bred with the wood buffalo producing hybrid offspring.

Halcrow said the chiefs have asked for a 18-month moratorium on any action while details of the plan, which Natives in the area will participate in implementing, are worked out.