Western ranchers are crying wolf again.
And once again the perceived threat to ranchers originates in Yellowstone National Park. This time it's not wolves but the park's bison herds that ranchers fear.Some of Yellowstone's bison are infected with brucellosis, a disease that causes spontaneous abortions in cattle. Since the bison often wander outside the park's boundaries, ranchers fear that brucellosis will spread to their herds.
Aside from the obvious damage the disease could cause beef production, the cattlemen also fear a loss of their herds' brucellosis-free rating from the U.S. Agriculture Department. If Western states' cattle were found infected with the disease, those states would be quarantined by the USDA and ranchers would be forced to implement a costly vaccination program.
The ranchers support a measure proposed by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., that requires all of Yellowstone's estimated 4,200 bison to be tested for brucellosis. Infected animals would be sterilized or destroyed. Since the park's bison are already overpopulated, it seems like an ideal solution.
Unfortunately, this proposal attacks real problems in an unrealistic manner.
Although brucellosis in cattle is genetically similar to the disease in bison, there is no documented evidence to suggest that brucellosis has ever been spread from bison to cattle on the free range.
Also, bison are not the only carriers of brucellosis. Elk and deer also carry the disease. Rounding up, testing and destroying infected elk and deer would be impossible. Containing the disease within the wildlife population is not realistic.
One wonders why the cattle industry has centered its misguided attack on Yellowstone's bison. The scare has reached such proportions that more than 250 bison have been shot this winter as they strayed outside Yellowstone in search of food. Could it be the real reason ranchers are upset is that bison compete with their cattle when grazing on public lands?
The only realistic way to protect cattle herds is to vaccinate the cattle against brucellosis, which are potentially at risk from other cattle as well as bison, elk and deer. Cattlemen, whose herds are literally feeding at the public trough, should foot the bill to vaccinate their animals. It's the cost of doing business on the open range.