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Salt Lake Telegram
Salt Lake City Utah Jan 9, 1921
SHOOTING THE BISON
The news dispatches carry a story of the arrival this week of a of “sportsmen” from Los Angeles, who, for a consideration of $200 each, may shoot one of the bison in the herd now located on Antelope island.
Those who love the virile history of the United States and especially the West must be proud of file present generation. At the same time, there must be a feeling of regret that the last of a noble animal tribe must come to such an ignoble death.
In the olden days, the bison were killed only for food and as a matter of protection. As long as the tribe was plentiful, there was sport in the chase. But now there are only several hundred left. The onward sweep of civilization has deprived them of their plains and driven them into a few obscure corners of the globe.
They should be preserved. They are a part of the history of the nation. They bring back of the days of our fathers – the valiant men who made the West.
But they are to go. Two hundred dollars must be paid for permission to do a deed real sportsmen wouldn’t perform if they were paid two hundred. The Pullman crowd will arrive in Salt Lake, be ferried to the island, and there, where this hapless tribe hasn’t half a chance, with the bison driven into the open for an arm chair shot, these “sportsmen” will see blood of the noble beast two hundred dollars’ worth.
Why they are called “sportsmen” is hard to understand. But probably they are. Then, too, the men who dynamite streams or east in a gold fish bowl are anglers: the men who use brass knuckles are fighters, and the men who would pay a couple hundred dollars to a circus to shoot a lion in a cage are wild game hunters.
Luckily the hunt is to be recorded in pictures. It will be a great thing to look up real “sportsmen” in a wild game “chase.” We will have a chance to see real “sportsmen.” When they return to Los Angeles they may perchance, again have their pictures shown. But pictures came too late. Had they been earlier, posterity might have been given the opportunity of seeing Daniel Boone stalking domestic cats, just as it will have an opportunity of seeing Angelenos “chasing bison.”
Sportdom may rejoice when “sportsmen” are as scare as bison.
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Muskogee Times-Democrat
Muskogee Oklahoma Jan 22, 1921
LAST BIG BUFFALO HUNT IS ON;
COST $200.00 A HEAD TO SHOOT THEM
Salt Lake City. Utah,.Jan. 22.—This photograph from Antelope Island, shows what probably will be the last real buffalo hunt In the history of the United States. The great, wild beasts are being shot down just as they were in the old days when range bison roamed the western plains. There are 230 of the doomed animals—descendants of a herd taken to the island years ago and left to run wild because they could not escape. They became so savage they began killing off blooded cattle taken to the island by the Buffalo Island Livestock company. So the company decided to get rid of them by selling permits to hunt them at $200 a lead. Efforts of humane societies to halt the plan failed, and the hunt is on. This picture shows some of the early hunters with their first victims.
(The rest of this article is the same as Feb 11th below)
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Argue Leader
Sioux Falls S. D. Feb. 4, 1921
CITY CANT TAKE GIFT OF BISON
Forestry Service Offers Male Buffalo With no Expense But Transportation Charges
The Sioux Falls park board has been offered more bison, for the city’s zoo at Covell park, the department of agriculture wishing to dispose of a number of male bison with no cost excepting the expense of transportation, but Fred Spellerbuerg, superintendent of parks, does not feel that Sioux Falls can take advantage of the government’s offer because the corral at Covell park is too small for more bison, he says, and he doubts the advisability of placing another male with the present pair because of the probability of trouble between the two males. The city’s zoo now has one male and one female buffalo.
The bison offered by the department of agriculture through the forestry service are in the Wichita preserve in Oklahoma and places are sought for 20 males varying in size and age. Although Uncle Sam is willing to make a present of these animals to park or zoological associations. ”or responsible individuals, who will take good care of them for breeding or exhibition purposes, the recipient must pay all expenses incident to the gift, including the cost of crating hauling and freight charges from Cache. Okla, to the point of delivery. .
“Here is an excellent opportunity.” the announcement reads, “to get a real, live buffalo – not as gentle, perhaps as a kitten, but nevertheless a nice pet if you have plenty of room to keep him, surrounded by a’ 12-foot doubly-ply, woven-wire fence, and the price of two tons of hay a year.”
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The Powder River Country Examiner
Broadus, Montana Feb 11, 1921
BISON INCREASE MAY BE PROBLEM
GOVERNMENT WOULD CARE FOR YELLOWSTONE ELK RATHER THAN BUY BUFFALO.
So Great Salt Lake Herd Will Go to Sportsmen, Who Will Pay $200 Each for Privilege of Stalking Them; Remarkable Growth of the Buffalo Herd.
The biological survey of the United States department of agriculture refuses to get excited over the slaughter of bison on Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake, and also refuses to be stampeded into urging congress to pass the Welling bill, making an appropriation for the purchase of the bison herd, which is now being exterminated.
Rather than spend $300,000 in purchasing the bison on Antelope Island, the department would spend that money in preserving the elk of Yellowstone park and that vicinity. In a statement on this subject, the department says:
”Although a few years ago slaughter of even a few bison would have been deemed a national calamity, the biological survey of the United States department of agriculture will make no definite effort to stop the proposed shooting of a number of these animals on the privately owned Antelope island in Great Salt Lake, announced in news dispatches.
”While regretting the announced decision of the owner of the herd to turn the fine animals over to sportsmen at $200 a head, Dr. E. W. Nelson, chief of the biological survey, does not find it expedient to curtail other and more necessary game preservation measures by seeking a congressional appropriation to buy this herd at the owner’s price. A bill to purchase the island and animals for $300,000 was recently introduced by Congressman Welling of Utah.
”The dark day of the bison has passed,’ said Dr. Nelson reverting to the time not many years ago when the principal remnant of the countless herds that once roamed this continent consisted of a pitiful group of less than 100 in Yellowstone national park, where they were prey to poachers because of inefficient protective laws.
“As a matter of fact, with the present rate of increase, it may become a problem in a few years how we shall care for the buffalo on the national preserves. It would be desirable for the government to own the Antelope island herd, but there are other and more urgent uses for the money. I would much rather it were spent to buy additional range land north and south of Yellowstone park for the sustenance of the elk which find insufficient feed within the grounds.’
“Statistics of the American Bison society show that on Jan. 1, 1920, there were 3,393 captive and wild buffalo in the United States, of which 1,032 were under the direct protection of the federal government. The rate at which the animals are ‘coming back’ may be partially realized from the fact that the Jan. 1, 1920, figures give 298 buffalo on the national bison range at Moise, Mont., while recent figures show 336. The nucleus of this herd was 40 buffalo in 1909. The leader is Kalispell Chief, a fine old veteran, who has maintained the primacy of the herd through the years. This herd is under the protection of the biological survey, as are also 61 animals at Wind Cave, S. D.; 7 at Sully’s N. D., and 28 at Niobrara, Neb. Of the other buffalo under government protection, protection, in January, 1920, figures give 21 in the National Zoological park at Washington, 6 on the Pisgah game preserve. North Carolina; 3 on the Platt national park, Oklahoma; 119 on the Wichita national forest, Oklahoma, and 502 in Yellowstone national park. – There were 489 buffalo calves born in the United States in 1919.”
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The Bismarck Tribune
Bismarck North Dakota Feb. 23, 1921
BACK TO BUFFALO BILL DAYS
Uncle Sam has another bison problem oh his hands. Not long ago he was fretting because the buffalo was sliding out of existence. Now he’s fussing with the same puzzle from another angle.
Too many buffalo babies.
Bison herds heard about the anti-race suicide stuff somebody preached. Result: 500 bison calves a year, and a birth rate climbing steadily upward.
“The dark day of the bison has passed,” says Dr. E. W. Nelson, chief of the United States Biological Survey.
But the dark day for your Uncle Sam is just breaking.
“As a matter of fact “ continues Dr. Nelson, “with the present rate of increase, it may become a problem in a few years how we shall care for the buffalo on the national preserves.”
Those pre-historians who feared the extinction of the bison may now sit back and let the tax payers hustle out and buy more pasturage for the buffalo.
That is exactly what Dr. Nelson wants the government to do—buy a few thousand acres near Yellowstone Park for the rapidly growing buffalo family.
Congressman Welling, of Utah, has introduced a bill in Congress appropriating $300,000 for the purchase of a bison-stocked island in Great Salt Lake. He says if Uncle Sam doesn’t take this buffalo herd off the owner’s hands they’ll be auctioned off to sportsmen, for shooting, at $200 a head.
And this is what we may be coming to—back to the Buffalo Bill days when every boy again may dream of hunting the buffalo.
Protest against staging these buffalo hunts has been made to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, which, however, gives notice that it will take no steps to halt the shooting.
The buffalo is something of a white elephant. It may be that the thing to do is to preserve the buffalo as we preserve other pre-historic animals, stuffed, on pedestals, in museums. There they’ll eat no hay.
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Palladium-Item
Richmond, Indiana Mar. 3, 1921
HOLLARN WOULD HAVE BISON HERD IN PARK
A bison herd for Glen Miller park is the latest plan of Ed Hollarn, park superintendent. Application for a male bison from the herd at the Wichita Forestry Reserve at Cache, Okla.. was made Thursday and if this is secured two cows will be purchased as a start for a herd.
The facilities at Glen Miller park are good for caring for the bison. A large portion of the park is available and would probably be enclosed, according to Mr. Hollarn. Efforts to preserve the bison are being made by flip government and it is thought very likely that Richmond will be able to secure the animals to add to the collection or animals, already started at the park
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The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles California Mar 13, 1921
Kills Young Bull Buffalo in Utah.
Supervisor McClellan (Standing) and Dead Bison.
HAS THRILL OF PIONEERS.
Snapshots of the buffalo-hunting trip of Supervisor McClellan on Buffalo Island In Utah, have reached Los Angeles. This trip was under taken by Mr. McClellan for the purpose of obtaining specimens of the wild buffalo for exhibition purposes at the Museum of History, in- Science and Art in Exposition Park. Mr. McClellan shot, six wild buffalo bisons, this species being almost extinct, though the pioneers killed them by hundreds of thousands. He was accompanied on the trip by J. P. Herring, taxidermist of this city. The skins are now being mounted. The photograph herewith shows a bull calf, 6 months old. that Mr. McClellan brought down with a .30 United States Army rifle at long range. The calf will be among the other bison to be placed on exhibition. Mr. McClellan is seen standing. Mr. Herring is at the extreme right. The second from the left, kneeling, is Ben Harris boss of the ranch, where the party stopped while on the expedition. Bruce J. King, the first man on the left, hails from Pomona and joined the party to obtain a bison and mount the head for his own home. Frank Arundell of Fillmore also obtained a specimen for his own use.
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Appeal To Reason
Girard, Kansas May 21, 1921
The Worst Atrocity
From The Nation.
It has remained for the American Museum of National History in New York City to publish to the world the latest and most heinous Bolshevist atrocity. Beside the Museum’s stuffed specimen of the European bison a placard proclaims: “Described by Caesar, hunted by Charlemagne, and exterminated by the Bolsheviki.” The full story of cruelty and hate is further elaborated by an explanation that the European bison had gradually become, reduced in numbers, until at the beginning of the World War there remained only a herd in Lithuania, protected by imperial edict, and a few in the Caucasus mountains. “During the World War of 1914-1918,” says the museum’s historian, “the Lithuanian and Caucasian herds are reported to have been exterminated, partly for food and partly for the sake of killing animals that had been protected by royalty.” Curiously enough, the history of the American bison runs counter to this. Our “buffalo” hit it off well enough with our Reds, surviving readily until 100 per cent Americanism arrived on the prairies with gunpowder, a desire for furs, and the doctrine that to kill game for food was sordid while to destroy it for fun was sport. But this man, Lenin had better watch his step from now on. He was only annoyed when the chancelleries of Europe took after him, but if our societies for the prevention of
cruelty to animals get going, they won’t stop until they have chased the chief Sovieteer down the Nevski Prospekt, thrown a net over his head, and packed him off to the Bide-a-Wee Home. Our humane societies, in defense of the European bison, will yet have those Bolsheviki buffaloed.
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Chicago Tribune,
Chicago, Illinois July 11, 1921
Mrs. Hump is a bison, or American buffalo. With her is her little April son, Humpy. The pair are among the most exclusive residents of the Lincoln park zoo.
The Injun found the buffalo Made clothing, food, and fuel; But white men killed ’em off, and Lo Now works to get his gruel.
Will some one kindly loan the nearsighted near sighted young man in the last seat a nickel? What! Not a nickel in our whole Monday morning class in zoölogy? Well, young man, sit closer. We haven’t a nickel, either.
Now you see, young man, that our subject this morning is the great American bison, or buffalo. He’s pictured on our present 5 cent pieces at least he was last time we had one. He is pictured also on the seals of many states, and on important papers.
This is quite fair. The bison once roamed America by the millions. About 1870 an apparently authentic report told of a herd covering a grazing around twenty-five miles wide by fifty miles long in Montana. The number of buffalo was estimated at 4,000,000. A traveler on the Kansas Pacific railroad of those days related that the train passed a moving herd twelve miles long. The bisons were chummy animals.
They migrated north and south as the seasons changed, always in herds of thousands.
In those happy days, the Indian found the bison his best friend. He provided Poor Lo his clothing, his food, and even his fuel when the wintry winds did blow. Buffalo chips, they called the fuel. But buffalo skin was valuable, his flesh was worth money, too, and so the white men killed them right and left.
Today the bison is nearly extinct. There are only two wild herds in the United States, authorities say. One is in Yellowstone park, the other in Lost Park, Colo. It looks like curtains for Mr. Buffalo and his family.
The species has a tremendous hump on its shoulders, with its withers much higher than its hind quarter. It has long, black hair covering its head and neck, with a pair of black horns that look dangerous as moonshine. But this buffalo never battles except on the defensive – no kick in him.
Epicures of other days rated the hump as the most tender meat of the buffalo. But what would you expect today if you asked your table companion to pass a hump, please? He’d probably pass you a match, too.
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The Montana Standard
Butte, Montana June 16, 1921
Descendants of Great Herds.
Time was when bison roamed the western prairies by the millions. Pioneer citizens of Montana can tell some exceedingly interesting accounts of buffalo herds they have seen, and some of them can narrate thrilling adventures in hunting bison in the frontier days.
The American Bison society recently made public some statistics which while of general interest in this country, are especially so to the west. Telling of that report, the New York Times of Sunday, June 12, contained the following item:
The total number of pure-blood bison throughout the world is now only 9.311, of which one-third are to be found in the United States, according to a summary of the thirteenth census of living American bison as of Jan. 31, just made public by the American Bison society. Of this number,there are in the United States 3,427 captive and 100 wild bison. In Canada, there are 4.916 captive and 800 wild: in North America. 900 wild, making a total of 9,243. In south America and foreign countries, there are 68 bison in captivity, making & total of 9,311. In 1920, 1,700 calves were born.
The foregoing shows that there is no immediate danger of the bison becoming extinct, even though their numbers have been so vastly reduced since the days of the early west. With the legal provisions made for their care in this country, they are well looked after and carefully safeguarded.
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Asheville Citizen-Times
Asheville North Carolina Aug. 2, 1921
WARDEN OF THE NATIONAL BISON RANGE This man, Warden Andrew Hodges, has the job of seeing that the American bison remains on the map, and does not become extinct. He is the big chief of the U. 8. National Bison Range, established at Mount Rainier, in the State of Washington, In 1909 by the Government, to keep the wild bison from becoming extinct
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The Daily Deadwood Pioneer Times
Deadwood South Dakota Aug 5, 1921
THE DEADWOOD TRAIL
(By Richard E. Curran, Ft. Pierre, B. D.)
An old trail, a bold trail
The old French trappers knew
A far trail and a war trail,
Through the land of the fighting Sioux
A rough trail, once a tough trail,
Where oft’ the war-whoop thrilled.
The gold trail was a bold trail,
As It bore to the far Black Hills.
So long ago, that none may know,
Not even the Tribesmen red,
What time was first, to quench their thirst.
The bison (herd was led.
O’er hill and vale and wooded swale
To the mighty river’s shore.
On the ridge’s crest, straight east and west,
The bison’s pathway bore.
At break, of day on swift foray
The red mass troopers sped. .
Fierce fighting clan of the Blackface band
By a wiley chiefton led.
By the ridge’s crest where the outlook’s best.
In the land of the dreaded Sioux.
On the bison’s trail, hoofs left no tale.
Well the raiding red men knew.
And all too soon for the red men’s boon
The paleface trappers came.
Through summer glow and winter snow
He followed the drifting game.
And ever best was the ridge’s crest,
With the lowlands spread to view
And there without fail was the bison trail,
Through, the land of the Teton Sioux.
From far to the west, mid mountain crest
Came a tale of the glittering gold.
By word of mouth, both north and south.
Of Deadwood Gulch men told.
And soon in view of the wondering Sioux
Came the rush, of the gold-mad throng.
And ever west by the ridge’s crest
Ran the bison’s trail along.
Came a long draw train, through snow and rain
In the height of the freighter’s day
And mighty loads o’er rutted roads
Creaked slowly on their way.
By the ridge’s crest came the stage express
With keen-eyed shotgun guard.
And the trail they knew through the land of the Sioux
Was the trail of the Bison herd.
‘Long the ridge’s crest that bore them west
Came the herds of long-horned steers.
With its chap-clad crew through the land of the Sioux
In the cowman’s halcyon years.
And the old trail wound on the higher ground
As the long years swiftly sped.
And the course it bore was the way of yore,
The way that the bison led.
Along a road, deep marked and broad,
Came the tillers of the sod.
O’er the hunting ground the Teton found
The sturdy plowman toil
But the trail they strode was now a road,
And the raiding bands have fled.
But ever west by the ridge’s crest
‘T’was the trail where the bison led.
An old trail, a bold trail,
Let us mark it deep and well.
And the bold tale of the gold trail
To our wondering children tell.
‘TIs a rough trail,., wild enough trail.
Yet I love this old trail best.
For the old trail, ye gold trail,
You- helped us win the west.
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The Courier-Journal
Louisville, Kentucky Aug. 7, 1921
THE BISON COMES BACK
At last there Is definite assurance that the American bison will not become a lost species and that the foundation exists for breeding the animals up to any point, in numbers, that may be desirable.
The buffalo slaughterers very nearly caused the species to become extinct, but conservationists who took in hand what was left of the greatest group of meat animals that ever existed in a wild state have scored a victory over the vandals.
J.B. Harkin, Commissioner of the Dominion Parks Branch of the Canadian Department of the Interior, says, in the Bulletin of the American Game Protective Association that the Canada buffalo herd, started with a small number of animals, has developed until it has become “an embarrassment of riches.” About 740 Individuals, composed of several small herds procured for Buffalo Park, Alberta, between 1908 and 1912 now number more than 5,000, ranging over 100,000 acres. There is practically no loss from disease. Casualties are few, amounting to eight in twelve months, and the herd increases so rapidly that commercialization soon may become necessary.
The Canada herd was established as matter of sentiment purely, but “may prove to be a valuable commercial proposition.” Mounted heads sold for more than $1,000 each at the Montreal fur auction last year, robes averaging $100. The meat could be marketed.
The hides make exceptionally tough and durable leather. The fleece of coarse wool which the bison carries storm coat has been collected from the prairies after the animals shed it in early spring and carded and spun. The result is woolen cloth of extraordinary strength, probably not suitable for clothing, but perhaps valuable for carpet making and other purposes.
There exists also the possibility that the great vitality of the bison and its ability to live in the open in severest winter weather in northern latitudes may be put to profitable use in cross breeding to produce a type of cattle requiring no shelter many hundreds of miles north of the present limit for the unsheltered domestic cattle. With this in view, the Canadian Government is making experiments.
The herd in the park in Alberta, not the only cue that is on the increase, but it is by far the largest and the most flourishing. It has been known for a long time that bison will not breed when confined in small inclosures and that there is little probability of substantial increase of herds which are not upon virtually unlimited range. The park in Alberta provides for the bison the conditions under which the herds lived before America was discovered save that it does not permit the seasonal migrations which left buffalo trails that guided the early explorers to the “gaps” in mountain ranges which are highways of commerce today.
Less than twenty years ago seemed not improbable that the bison would die out. In 1887 W. T, Hornaday wrote “Extermination of the American Bison” in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution. At that time the slaughter of the Texas herd was rearing its end, and since 1850 none had remained east of the Plains States.
An edition of the Encyclopedia Americana, published in the first decade of the Twentieth Century, gave the number of buffalo in Yellowstone Park as about 100, “a group which probably will be maintained,” and estimated the total number then living as 500 or 600, “the sole relic of millions of these valuable animals which a half-century ago ranged our ‘Western plains and which were recklessly wasted.”
As late as the middle of the Nineteenth Century plains tribes .of Indians had waged desperate, and hopeless, wars against the whites’ in defense of their hunting grounds because the bison was to the Indian an inexhaustible source of both food and shelter.
The widespread belief that efforts f owners of small herds to perpetuate the species would fail is reflected in the reference of the Encyclopedia Americans, in its latest edition, to the bison as ‘now nearly extinct,” no census given. Yet between the time of the publication of the two editions of this work of reference the Canada herd has grown from 740 to more than 5,000.
The discovery, several months ago, of a small wild herd in remote Canadian forests, which Indians had long contended could be found there, was reported and the doubting Thomases of the American Bison Society were seemingly convinced of the truth of a story which had .been looked upon as probably legendary.
Some Americans may regret that the rescue of the bison from impending extinction has occurred in Canada, more definitely than in Yellowstone Park or elsewhere in the United States, but there will be general satisfaction in the knowledge that there now is little probability that the American bison will become, like his European cousin, the aurochs, an extinct species, and that the time may come when the native wild cattle of America, shamelessly destroyed by the ‘buffalo runners,” may gain recognized economic value as a result of the Canada experiment.
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The News-Herald
Franklin Pennsylvania Sept. 23, 1921
AMERICAN BISON HEAD IS ON EXHIBITION HERE
Animal Was Reared on River Ridge Farm and Was Eight Years Old Hide Also Shown.
Exhibited In the window Of the Franklin Hardware Co. store is a head of an American bison, so large and handsome that the taxidermist who mounted, it said it was the finest he had seen in recent years. The big fellow was reared and lived on Hon. Joseph C. Sibley’s River Ridge Farm. The creature was about eight years old. His true name is bison, though he is mostly, and incorrectly, called buffalo.
Along with the head is shown the bison’s hide, made into a “buffalo” robe of the type once familiar but very rare since this type of annual so narrowly escaped entire extinction. Only the policy of the Government in preserving herds of bison in the national parks, and the enterprise of those who, like Mr. Sibley, have maintained private herds, has saved to the present generation a small number of survivors, of this, one of the strangest kind of creatures that ever roamed the wilds.
The bison whose head and hide are now on exhibition was a sturdy fellow, with large and business-like horns and heavy mane, a fine example of the millions that used to swarm over the prairies. River Ridge has a number of others and the herd is one of the many sights there.
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Fort Scott Daily Tribune
Fort Scott Kansas Sep 29, 1921
Bones Those Of Prehistoric Bison, 20,000 Years Old
That the vertebrae unearthed in the banks of Drywood Creek, 10 miles southeast of here, by workmen making an excavation for, a bridge abutment, are those of a prehistoric bison, probably of the later Pleistocene period, was the statement made this afternoon by H. T. Martin, curator of the museum of Kansas University, who came in today at noon to look at the bones.
The earth was, passing through the Pleistocene period about 20,000 years ago. Hence Prof. Martin says, it is probable that the vertebrae found are from 15,000 to 20,000 years old.
This prehistoric bison, says the scientist, differed considerably from the modern American bison, although the latter was perhaps one of his direct descendants. The ancient bison was considerably larger than that of modern America.
One very interesting statement made by Prof. Martin was that, among the collection of bones at the courthouse, were those of several animals. There were two teeth, evidently those of a, wolf, some vertebrae of an animal smaller than a bison, possibly a smaller animal of the same family, a vertebrae which might have been that of an ancient horse, and some smaller bones, possibly those of a beaver, or a similar animal., These bones, said Prof. Martin, were probably all of the same period that is, they are from 15,000 to 20,000 years old. The different kinds of bones were perhaps originally lying at points widely separated, but as the result of floods were washed down and deposited in a pocket of the earth.
The giant bison, whose bones are the most interesting of those in the collection, was contemporaneous with the first human life on this continent, scientists say. Also, this bison was contemporaneous with the mammoth. Prof. Martin says that very frequently in such collections of bones some of those of the mammoth are found, and he was eager to go this afternoon to the point at which the bones were found in an effort to discover traces of the mammoth. Prof.” Martin was very much interested in the fossils and urged that they be preserved. The length or Prof. Martin’s stay will depend, probably, on what he finds at the place where the bones were first uncovered.
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The Springfield News Leader
Springfield, Missouri Dec. 4, 1921
THE BUFFALO IS NO L0NGER GAME ANIMAL
American Game Protective Association Says Any One Should Be Allowed to Raise Bison for Commercial Purposes
On Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake, Utah. was a herd of over two hundred buffalo. These animals were private property, and because the men who owned both Island and buffalo believed that domestic cattle would prove more profitable it was decided to dispose of the bison. It was found impossible to sell them on the hoof for anything near the price at which they were held. Then a bill was introduced at Washington by Congressman Welling of Utah to purchase both island and animals for $300,000.
Not receiving any encouragement from this source, the owners decided to sell one hundred of these animals to men who would go on the island and shoot them. The price charged was $200 a head. The remainder was to be sold at private sale for what they would bring, to be used either for propagation purposes or to be butchered and sold for what the meat, head, and hide would net.
The American Game Protective association received a great many letters of protest against killing the buf- association can agree with the association can agree with the writers of these letters- is in the element of sport attached to the killing. The association would look at it rather that a man paid $200 for the privilege of going on this island and procuring a quantity of buffalo meat and trophies in the mounted head and hide. Surely no one could seriously consider this sport.
From the standpoint of the actual killing, the officers of the association see no objection to it. The buffalo now being held in captivity are rapidly increasing. The chance of the species being exterminated is far removed From a nucleus of 40 buffalo in 1909 on the national bison range at Moise, Montana, there are now 336 animals, statistics of the American Bison society show that on January 1, 1920, there were 3,393 American bison in the United States. Over 1.000 of these were under the direct protection of the federal government. There were 489 buffalo calves born in the United States in 1919. Canada also maintains large herds of these animals on her preserves and is at present contemplating commercializing them to take care of the increase.
The buffalo can no longer on any sense of the word be considered a game animal in the United States. They can only survive in number when placed on the plains with beef cattle. The American Game Protective association believes that it should be permissible for anyone to raise buffalo for commercial purposes without being hindered by legislation. Often sentimental propaganda proves detrimental to real game protective measures. The A. G. P. A.has no patience with the man who raves because the buffalo no longer inhabits the western plains. It was inevitable that he should give way before the settlers of the prairie states. Pray tell where there is one spot in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska or the Dakotas where a bull buffalo on the rampage would not cause at least half a dozen farmers to go on the war path.
Formerly the mastodon was found practically all over the United States. Can you imagine a mastodon tramping around in New Jersey today? Different species of the mammoth were also once native to America and they were not exterminated by game hogs of this or any other generation. It Is almost as far fetched to hear a man bemoaning the fact that the buffalo herds no longer exist as it would be were he to claim that by proper conservation measures the Diplodocus, a reptile of over eighty-five feet in length, should still he romping around upon the table lands of Wyoming, where scientists obtained his skeleton, which can now be seen in the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh.
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