Live data from Hacker News

The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

vice.com

1–10 of 20 posts

Re: The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

#3
> I think that if the public knew what was being done to the Yellowstone herd, people might demand a change in policy.

I feel the same way about all animals unnecessarily slaughtered. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian." [1] I would take it further and say that if dairy farms had (metaphorical) glass walls [2], everyone would be vegan.

It's tragic what is happening to the Bison, but it's not significantly different than what happened to most people's meals.

[1] https://youtu.be/HjqOTtJYXX0

[2] https://youtu.be/iL9QJEm_SJY

Re: The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

#5
post #4

I couldn't get past the first few paragraphs. Culling of wild animals by definition has to do with carrying capacity and I would have expected that to be the basic point of discussion.

OK, why ban public access?

Re: The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

#6
post #4

I couldn't get past the first few paragraphs. Culling of wild animals by definition has to do with carrying capacity and I would have expected that to be the basic point of discussion.

This paragraph, later on in the piece, briefly addresses the issue. According to the sources the author cites, the cull is not ecologically justified, but rather to stop the cattle from competing with domestic cattle.

>> Of the estimated 5,000 bison in the park in February, only a few hundred had roamed into Montana, and most of these had already been killed. The goal during 2015 was to "cull," in the language of wildlife management, at least 900 of the creatures, almost 20 percent of the herd. Park Service officials told me that the IBMP had established a maximum population of 3,000 bison in the park, and that this year's cull was a first step toward achieving that number. James Bailey, a retired professor of wildlife biology at Colorado State University and author of the 2013 book American Plains Bison: Rewilding an Icon, told me the ceiling of 3,000 animals is "a political number, not a biological or ecological number. It's what the ranchers will accept.

Re: The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

#7
post #3

> I think that if the public knew what was being done to the Yellowstone herd, people might demand a change in policy. I feel the same way about all animals unnecessarily slaughtered. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian." [1] I would take it further and say that if dairy farms had (metaphorical) glass walls [2], everyone would be vegan. It's tragic what is happening to the Bison, but it'…

I think this statement could only have come from someone who haven't spent much time outside of big cities. At least where I am from, people in more rural settings don't care about bovine or porcine feelings. This certainly doesn't mean that we torture animals, but when their time comes, the knife goes in, and meat goes on the table. "Everyone" most certainly would not become vegetarian.

Re: The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

#8
post #4

I couldn't get past the first few paragraphs. Culling of wild animals by definition has to do with carrying capacity and I would have expected that to be the basic point of discussion.

OK, why ban public access?

Maybe because they think it's easy to whip up public frenzy even over something completely justified?

Though as the uncle comment notes, it doesn't really seem "completely justified" here.

Re: The Government Won’t Let Me Watch Them Kill Bison, so I’m Suing (2015)

#10
The lawsuit did apparently result in some access, no particularly good camera angles though: https://truthout.org/articles/montana-s-beef-with-buffalo-an...

The fight now seems to be focused on getting the bison classified as an endangered species: https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/09/fish-and-wildl...

Post reply on HN