This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

The National Park Service (NPS) is working on a much-needed update to its bison management plan for Yellowstone National Park and one option it's considering could save thousands of these iconic animals from slaughter. Urge the agency to act to protect bison before the comment period closes!

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement released in August includes three alternatives for bison management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem going forward.

Since the Interagency Bison Management Plan was formed by federal and state agencies 23 years ago, bison have been intensively “managed” through captures, confinement, slaughter, hunts, and hazing — largely at the behest of the livestock industry over misguided concerns that bison could transmit brucellosis to cattle, particularly in Montana, even though this has never been documented.

Although some changes in recent years have spared some lives, thousands of bison have been captured and sent to bloody slaughterhouses, and many others are still gunned down once they cross the park's invisible boundary as they migrate in search of food in winter. Last year alone, 1,139 bison were killed by hunters, 88 were sent to slaughter, and hundreds of others were removed by the NPS.

Now, the NPS is considering changes to bison management. Under Alternative 3, bison would be managed more like wild animals than livestock, and captures for slaughter would immediately be stopped. Bison numbers would also be kept between 3,500 to 7,000 after calving, mostly by state and tribal hunts in Montana.

While the measures under this alternative are a good step, they don't go nearly far enough and hunting will still be used to control their population. Bison must be allowed to roam outside the park safely, and their population shouldn't be artificially controlled. According to the NPS, the park alone could sustain upwards of 10,000 bison.

Today, wild bison occupy less than 1% of their historic range, and Yellowstone's population is one of the few wild ones left in North America. They must be better protected.

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.