Bison slaughter in Yellowstone

Authorities and animal protection societies in the USA have reached an agreement to reduce the bison herd in Yellowstone National Park, which spans the states of Wyoming and Montana, by executing 900 bison. All consider it both regrettable and unavoidable, which explains the drastic decision.  

Bison have emerged in recent years as the fastest reproducing of all bovine species. And it is curious because a hundred years ago there were fears of their disappearance. In the nine hundred square kilometres of Yellowstone there were barely a hundred or so left. Brucellosis was wiping them out. But protective measures and luck changed. 

Today, according to a report in The New York Times, there are now 5,400 grazing in the grasslands, leaving other animal species without food. A few years ago, wolves were used to decimate them, but without success: the bison are too tall and too cunning to be killed by other animals that can barely reach their bellies. 

Lately they have spread throughout the park and even to other lands in Montana where ranchers complain that they carry disease. There is only one recent experience with similar situations. It occurred in the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, where dozens were slaughtered within the park itself, something that some reject. 

The proponents of the decision in this case do not want the culling to take place in the species' home range. In order to slaughter them, a quota will be opened for hunters to kill a part of them and the rest will be transferred to protected centres where experts will arbitrate ways of execution that do not cause them physical suffering.  

The reasons given for such a controversial decision are that bison are very voracious when grazing and are endangering the ecosystem of the most important national park in the United States. Their increase is the cause of the starvation that is exterminating other animals with fewer resources for survival and painful measures must be taken to maintain the ecological balance.