Eighty million wild buffalo, or bison, once thundered across the Great Plains in herds 12 miles wide. By the early 1900s, just 23 remained, and they were given safe haven inside Yellowstone National Park. The herd numbers roughly 3,000 today. These animals are America's last free-roaming buffalo, and the last living link to those epic herds of the past. Yet each winter, hundreds of buffalo, including pregnant females and newborns, are rounded up and slaughtered by government agents when they wander out of the park in search of food. Last winter, nearly a third of the buffalo population was wiped out.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Montana Department of Livestock justify these killings on the grounds that wild bison can transmit the disease brucellosis to cattle -- but there has never been a single documented case of such transmission. There are fewer than 100 cows that graze near the park, and they can be vaccinated against the disease (if they haven't been already) or separated from buffalo with fencing.

As part of our Yellowstone/Rockies BioGems campaign, NRDC is fighting to stop the senseless killing of buffalo and put in place a compassionate, long-term management plan that would allow this national icon to survive and thrive. Tell the Department of Agriculture to be the buffalo's guardian, not its executioner.