A protester arrested Monday after putting up an improvised perch inside a bison-capture facility near West Yellowstone appeared in Gallatin County court Tuesday on several misdemeanor charges.
Nathaniel James Drake, 26, of West Yellowstone, was arrested late Monday afternoon by Gallatin County Sheriff's deputies.
Multiple charges
Drake was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer and criminal trespass, Gallatin County Sheriff Jim Cashell said. Drake made his initial appearance in the county's justice court Tuesday, where bond was set at $5,000.
Drake was removed Monday from the Horse Butte bison trap after he climbed into a bipod with two poles, a blue tarp and a sign that said: "I called, I wrote and no response ... This is my response."
He was protesting bison management policies of capturing and sending to slaughter animals that leave Yellowstone National Park. The state and federal plan is aimed at reducing the risk of transmitting brucellosis to cattle in the area.
Drake got into his perch just as the Montana Department of Livestock was gearing up to begin capturing bison near West Yellowstone.
30 bison hazed
Livestock Department agents hazed 30 bison into the Horse Butte trap Tuesday, transferred them to another facility and are expected to ship them to slaughter today, according to the agency's spokesman, Steve Merritt.
Also Tuesday morning, 48 bison from Yellowstone were shipped to slaughter after being captured along the park's northern boundary Monday, said Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman. Sixty others are expected to be taken away today.
So far this winter, 338 bison have been sent to slaughter and 157 are awaiting shipment in the capture facility on the park's north side.
The meat, heads and hides are donated to tribal and social-service organizations.
Published on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Last modified on 2/27/2008 at 12:31 am
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here's a response for ya, we should afford illegal protesters and bison the same rights. maybe we could ship the protester off with the bison and donate the meat, head, and hide to a local organization. they could be used in an educational effort to prevent the liberal-look-at-me virus from spreading too far from yellowstone boundaries and endangering Montana's kook-free status.
I think its very interesting that the live stock department chose to slaughter buffalo due to fear of brucellosis spreading when congress has decided to take wolves,a main predator of buffalo, off the endangered species list. The 338 bison could have been weeded out in the natural cycle of life and death by the soon to be poached wolves.
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