STAFF DELIVERS SHOTS IN THE PARK TO BISON.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer There was plenty of kicking, squirming and fussing in protest as twice-yearly shots were administered Wednesday, but the setting wasn't a pediatrician's office and the injections protected against were worms. That's because the patients weren't screaming toddlers but rather 10 American bison American bison see bisonbison. , the half-ton bovine beasts who roam 25 to 30 hilly acres at William S. Hart Park. Every six months, the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County Department of Parks and Recreation teams with the county animal shelter "Dog Pound" redirects here. For the rap group, see Tha Dogg Pound. An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats. in Castaic to round up the herd in a specially built metal pen inside the fenced bison compound in Hart Park. There, one by one, the bison were coaxed into a narrow chute where they could be held still long enough for handlers to dispense a shot of Ivomec, the de-wormer, through the metal gates. ``It kills the parasites and the worms that they pick up,'' explained Jerry White Jerry White is a common name that can refer to different people:
The injections are given in each animal's ``back, side or rump - wherever we can get at them,'' White added. That's because the bison - popularly referred to as buffalo, although that's a slight misnomer misnomer n. the wrong name. MISNOMER. The act of using a wrong name. 2. Misnomers, may be considered with regard to contracts, to devises and bequests, and to suits or actions. 3.-1. - are by no means tame, domesticated animals. And they don't like being confined, even though the recently begun cycle of veterinary care and treatment is for their own good. Bison herds have been at the county recreation area for three decades but had never had veterinary care until last fall, when the Friends of Hart Park donated $25,000 worth of equipment. That gift included the tall, circular pen with movable metal walls and its attached chute, plus a corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most of horizontal metal crossbars spaced close enough together to prevent the animals' escape. ``Until we got the pen and the chute, there was never a way to do this, so it didn't get done,'' White said. The animal handlers administered the first round of shots last September, said Margo White, Jerry's wife and an assistant regional superintendent for the county parks department. Although now assigned to Castaic Lake Recreation Area, Margo White had previously been Hart Park's animal keeper so she is very familiar with the bison herd of five females and five males, including baby Little Thunder, born in November. On Wednesday, the county employees were helped by several members of Emergency Volunteer Rescue Team, a group affiliated with the Castaic animal shelter. The bison butted the 10-foot walls of the enclosure - called a crowding tub - with their curved horns and kicked it with their hind legs in rebellion as the crew, standing on ledges that allow them to look down into the pen, waited for the animals to settle down. Then, with some gentle prodding - including the crew moving the wall in increments so the bison occupied a progressively smaller wedge of the pen - the animal was directed into the chute. There, the bison can be held relatively immobile with the help of a neck restraint. Although they kick, head butt and resist, they aren't in pain while in the chute, said EVRT EVRT Electronic Variable Response Turbocharging member Sharon Carter. Once each animal got its shot, handlers let it out of the chute to amble amble a slower, non-racing version of pace gait in horses. broken amble has many characteristics of the amble but there are four beats to the gait with each foot contacting the ground independently. Called also single-foot. off to the hillside. On Wednesday, the well-choreographed procedure took about an hour because each bison only had to get one shot. In the bisons' inaugural treatment last fall, county crews attached plastic yellow tags to each animal's ear, identifying it by number, took blood samples and gave vaccinations against various diseases including tuberculosis and brucellosis brucellosis (br  'səlō`sĭs) or Bang's disease, infectious disease of farm animals that is sometimes transmitted to humans. , a bacterial disease common to cattle. Wednesday's only mishap was the result of instinctive animal behavior. ``One female was in the pen with another female who just had a baby. She got gored but she's going to be OK,'' said Tina Nuss, acting animal keeper at Hart Park. Little Thunder marked a rite of passage rite of passage n. A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood. of sorts on Wednesday, one that allows county officials to track his health records. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1--Ran in SAC Edition only) A bison gored by another female is kept isolated for treatment Wednesday after the Hart Park animals received worm vaccinations. (2) Jerry White and other animal control personnel steady a bison Wednesday while it receives an ear tag ear tag Preauricular tag A common minor skin defect, consisting of a rudimentary tag of tissue, often with central cartilage, usually located just in front of the ear at Hart Park. Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News |
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