Cattle Don’t Belong on Our Public Lands. Bison Do.

The long-running grazing scam on your public lands

Here’s a fact that should outrage every American: every year we round up and slaughter our wild, free-ranging, national mammal so that privately owned cattle can graze our public lands for less than the price of a gas station coffee.

That’s right. A rancher with a federal grazing permit pays $1.35 per month to turn a cow and calf loose on public land—land that belongs to all of us. Meanwhile, bison, the very symbol of the American West, the animal that shaped this land for millennia, are restricted to comparatively tiny patches of ground, treated like pests, hazed by helicopters, or outright slaughtered if they dare step outside their designated zones.

How the hell did we get here?

This is a story about public lands being hijacked for private gain. It’s a story about native species being pushed aside to make room for an industry that should be confined to private property. It’s about an outdated, taxpayer-subsidized system that wrecks habitat, pollutes water, and props up the false idea …