A group of bison graze, just inside Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner, Mont. (Ted S. Warren, Associated Press file)
Re: “Bison herd at Rocky Mountain Arsenal refuge gets more room to roam,” Dec. 8 news story.“
After reading several articles in The Denver Post about bison conservation, I am wondering why the simple fact that brucellosis initially came from cattle to bison is not mentioned. Nor the fact that cattle can be vaccinated for brucellosis.
Yet brucellosis is cited as the reason why the Yellowstone bison are doomed to be slaughtered by the hundreds each spring, rather than transported live to other conservation herds and to Native nations.
The narrative that we receive is that bison have brucellosis, which cattle are at risk of catching, which is an inversion of what actually happened. That makes it harder to envision a world in which bison roam like other wildlife, and domestic cattle are vaccinated.
Deborah Gaudet, State College, Penn.
This letter was published in the Dec. 12 edition.
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