Fort Resolution (Mar 06/06) - The captive bison herd in Fort Resolution will be no more by the end of this month.

Most animals will be shipped to an abattoir in Lacombe, Alta., to be killed and tested for bovine tuberculosis, and disease-free meat will be sold. Some animals will be killed in Fort Resolution.

However, the community takes issue with destroying the animals in the territorial government project, established in 1996 to preserve a herd free of TB and brucellosis in the South Slave.

That idea came to a crashing halt last spring when a bison tested positive for tuberculosis.

Chief Robert Sayine of Deninu Ku'e First Nation (DKFN) says he and many others want the animals returned to the wild. Some people even suggest cutting the fence to set them free.

Sayine notes disease is already in the South Slave bison population.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger says the herd has been quarantined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The GNWT cannot release the animals to the wild, he says. "That would just add to the problem."

Over the years, the government has spent $3 million on the project, which involved founder animals from the Hook Lake area.

Before TB was discovered, the government was planning to wrap up the project because of a lack of federal funding.

If the herd has to be destroyed, Sayine says it should be done in Fort Resolution.

Sayine and Metis Council president Lloyd Cardinal met Miltenberger in Yellowknife on March 2 to discuss the issue.

"We were telling him, why send them to Lacombe?," Sayine says.

It would mean about two weeks work for 10-20 people if the job was done in Fort Resolution.

Miltenberger says shipping the animals to Alberta is a matter of volume, and ensuring animals are tested properly and meat is not wasted.

"There would potentially be tons of meat to dispose of," he says.

The CFIA-approved abattoir in Lacombe has agreed to do the work for free.

The slaughter of the herd and site remediation will still cost between $50,000-$100,000.

There were 132 animals in the herd last spring. Since then, culling has dropped the number to 91. Of the animals killed, a half-dozen had TB.

There still remain 13 to be killed in Fort Resolution. They are animals brought from Hook Lake or bulls too big to be transported. That leaves 78 to be shipped to Lacombe.

Sayine says Fort Resolution also wants financial compensation for hosting the herd, although an amount has not yet been suggested.

Miltenberger notes proceeds from the sale of meat in Alberta will go to Fort Resolution.

Plus, salvageable infrastructure from the ranch will go to the community, and the DKFN and the Metis can get the contract to remediate the site.

A March 23 meeting is planned in Yellowknife to further discuss compensation.

On March 1, one bison in the project was killed and tuberculosis was discovered. It was taken to a remote area about nine kilometres east of the community and left overnight before being burned the next day.

Louis Balsillie, a DKFN councillor, said that may have introduced TB to predators before the carcass was burned.

"That's putting TB onto the land," he says.

Miltenberger says burning diseased animals away from town is the protocol to prevent smoke drifting over the community.

The carcass was handled properly, he says.

"They would not have left it there if the TB was in its active form."