Is this the end of European Bison?

by Krzysztof Turowski

“We saved the European Bison!” Such and similar comments appeared in the Internet, along with information about the suspension of commercial, selective reduction of this species. In my country, we are saying, it is good to sit next to the bison (We have an advertising of beer called Żubr – eng. European Bison, with this text). Let’s sit then, because the end of an European Bison can be very close.

Give money to save European bison, give money to save wolf, give for saving lynx. Not much, 40 or 50 PLN. It’s a small monthly donation for an indefinite period.

These so-called  environmental organization’s persist from such donations. Wp.pl inform, that some of them may collect even 20 000 000 PLN annually. They also provide information about the president’s considerable income, comparing it to the protection of lynch which, according to reports, is negligible, several times smaller. We are not talking about the earnings of other employees, which are supposedly huge, too. Of course, the organization in a later statement presents other, much higher amounts for statutory expenses and animal protection saying it’s not true what wp.pl said. You can read the whole article  << here >>.

Generally, I am ok with the fact that people earn a lot, or even more. I appreciate that someone is working very hard, for his success, because it is probably not easy to become the president of such a large organization. What annoys me, is that it is done under the cover of nature protection, using anti-hunting attitudes, lies and a large anti-hunters campaign in media. They don’t want to mention that the main purpose, and idea of hunting is to protect the nature.

C0ming back to the European Bison topic. We do not hunt bisons at all. There is only a selection and reduction if really needed. A typical hunter could not come to State Forests and say he wants to shoot a bison. Bison was reborn practically almost from zero and the people who did it knows how, and what to do to make the bison feel good. I think they owe a greater dose of trust. These people know and understand the real needs of a bison. There can’t be too many of them, because too many animals in the same area will threaten the population of the entire herd, ex. because of the feeding base.

In 2017, lasy.gov.pl (Polish State Forest’s official webpage) wrote, that for commercial reduction in 2012-2016, the forest inspectorates received the amount of over PLN 1.5 million, where cost of living for European Bisons in this period was around PLN 2.8 millions.

Only in 2016, the costs of the European bison in 6 regional directorates of the State Forests was about PLN 3.1 million. The money came from their own funds, government forestry fund and E. As you can see, keeping our European Beasons population cost a lot. The forests do not mention about any contribution of  environmentalists.

Now the most important part- bisons still have to be reduced. However, reductive shoot will be performed only by employees of the State Forests, thus cutting off gigantic funds for its protection from the sale of reduction shots. If you look at it from the right perspective, you will understand that such action is a huge risk to the bison’s population.

Everything would be ok, if the financial gap would be cover by the environmentalists and organizations that lie and collecting money for something completely different from nature conservation. Probably each of you will list several organizations in a few seconds.

The next step should be to cover damages caused by wild animals in places where hunters can not hunt. For example due to the change of hunting law, everything from 0 up to 150m from the buildings or previously described R.O.R.O.S., the article << here >>. It should be covered from the funds of the organization that proposed such changes.

Finally, it may be time for other organizations to cover the damage they cause to nature and the environment by their lack of knowledge. Let them participate in wild animals damages in crops, let them support shelters for homeless dogs that kill wild animals. Take responsibility for what you do. Stop disturbing nature conservation and let professionals care about the European Bison and other species. Bison, lynx, wolf will be great without you. It does not really matter whether the hunter or an employee of the State Forests shoots the bullet. This bullet can save other bisons. But whatever, give money to lynx, because maybe someone called Lynx has to buy a new car to proudly represent his organization. What about Bison? It’s not bison. It’s some clever Lynx who tried to coax others.

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