Ranchers want bison kept away from herds

Some ranchers are opposed to a proposal to move 14 wild Yellowstone bison to a state park in southeast Wyoming, despite assurances from state officials that the animals are free of an animal disease that can cause abortions among cattle. Wyoming suggested Guernsey State Park as a possible home as Montana seeks to move them out of a Gardiner, Mont., quarantine facility and avoid their slaughter. Montana is also considering sending another 74 bison to billionaire Ted Turner's ranch in that state. Eastern Wyoming's ranching community is skeptical about introducing the animals in an area that's free of brucellosis. Fears over the disease helped sink an earlier attempt to move the quarantined animals to Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation. "People that I've talked to, they'd like to keep brucellosis, any chance of having brucellosis, out of the herds in this part of the country," said Charlie Stevenson, a Wheatland rancher and board member for the Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming. State and federal officials say the bison have been tested extensively for brucellosis and see no risk in releasing the animals elsewhere...read more