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National Park Service Sued For Media Access To Bison Culling At Yellowstone National Park

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A lawsuit has been filed against the National Park Service by the Animal Legal Defense Fund on behalf of a journalist who wants to gain access to bison trapping operations at Yellowstone National Park.

The 27-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday, argues that Christopher Ketcham is being blocked by the Park Service from observing the "herding, trapping, sorting or shipping activities" of bison to slaughter. The writer maintains he needs to observe the activities for articles into how the Interagency Bison Management Plan is managing Yellowstone's bison herds.

Those herds reached an estimated 5,000 animals last summer, and under the IBMP the target goal is 3,000. To bring the current population down to that number, a mix of hunting bison that leave the park and head into Montana this winter along with capturing upwards of 900 bison to ship to Native American tribes is set to begin February 15. Mr. Ketcham and a co-plaintiff, Stephany Seay, maintain that they have a First Amendment right to observe all the steps taken by crews to round up the bison for shipment out of the park.

Under the process, bison are driven to the park's Stephens Creek Capture Facility pens, where blood is drawn to test for brucellosis, a disease that can cause livestock to abort their fetuses, before the iconic animals are loaded onto trucks and shipped away.

Along with arguing that the plaintffs have a right to watch the bison trapping and sorting to fully understand the process, the lawsuit charges that in past years bison have been injured and "brutally treated" during their handling at Stephens Creek. It also alleges that one of the slaughterhouses used by the Park Service has been cited by the U.S. Agriculture Department "for failing to humanely handle animals during slaughter, as required by federal regulations."

In arguing for access, the lawsuit claims that "(F)rom the late 1990s until 2006, Defendants regularly allowed the public and media to view the herding, trapping, sorting and shipping of bison from the catwalks over the pens within the Stephens Creek Capture Facility."

"...in this case, Plaintiffs lack any ability to observe and document the culling of the Yellowstone bison by the National Park Service on National Park land," the filing added. "As such, the Plaintiffs and other members of the public are unable to learn about the implementation of the IBMP and, therefore, unable to meaningfully contribute to public discourse about it."

“If the First Amendment right of access is to mean anything,” law professor and ALDF attorney Justin Marceau said in a release, “it means that citizens and journalists should have reasonable, non-disruptive access to their publicly-funded national park to observe and memorialize one of the most controversial uses of national park land imaginable.”

Mr. Ketcham has written about the bison controversy for VICE, Harper’s, and other magazines and websites.

“I want full access to the operations,” he said in a release, “so I can effectively report on the issue. I want to be able to see the suffering of these animals up close, and thus bring readers up close.”

Comments

Transparency is not exactly a strong point for the National Park Service:

http://www.schundler.net/FOIAfailing.pdf

Try asking your local park for a copy of their budget and organization chart if you don't believe me.


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