Montana Large Animal Sanctuary & Rescue

Bart the Bison made headlines last August when he escaped form his 36-foot long pen Northwest of Tucson AZ and roamed the desert for four days. Bart, a 2,000 pound, 5 foot tall, 5 year old buffalo was able to successfully allude capture while his inexperienced herders were trying all sorts of tricks to round him up: using a garden hose as a fence; using Oreo's as an enticement; lassoing him with a rope; and chasing him en masse. They were just about ready to have a woman dressed in a buffalo suit sachet past Bart - to lure him into his trailer - when a couple of experienced buffalo wranglers were able to load Bart safely into his trailer and send him back to the ranch.

Although Tucsonan's grew to love Bart and his tale of adventure, many felt he belonged in the high country - out of the desert - in an area with other buffalo.

This past spring, Bart was to be sold at auction to generate cash for his owner's bankruptcy. A local rescue organization, Castaway Treasures Animal Sanctuary, purchased Bart in the auction, along with one of Bart's roommates from the Wild Horse Ranch - Dalai Llama, a llama, to protect them from slaughter. Castaway Treasures Animal Sanctuary, however, did not have enough space for Bart and Dalai - having just two acres near Tucson. So the owner of Castaway Treasures, Adrian Bruno, called The Association of Sanctuaries (TAOS), a national accreditation organization for sanctuaries, to locate a permanent home for Bart and Dalai.

TAOS referred Bruno to the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary & Rescue, Inc. (MLASR), a non-for-profit, 501 (c)(3), animal welfare organization base near Polson, MT. MLASR sits on 145 acres of green Montana pastures and has the facilities - and caring mission - to provide a home for Bart and Dalai for the rest of their lives. As soon as Bruno made the connection with MLASR's president, Kathryn Warrington, Warrington began to make things come together. She found a Benson, AZ based veterinarian willing to perform the required examinations and testing on the 2,000 pound Bart; she was referred by the National Bison Association to the Colorado-based Flying Eagle Bison Ranch Buff Tuff Trucking company, the premier buffalo hauling company in the country, to provide loading and transport services for Bart and Dalai; and she contacted SOLIDLOCK, (USA), Inc., the premier manufacturer of fixed knot game fencing in the world, who donated four 660 foot rolls of their netted wire fencing to be used to construct Bart's 10-acre containment. Warrington estimated that the cost of preparation and transportation alone would be $8,300, which is in addition to the costs of caring for Bart and Dalai for the remainder of their lives.

With the fencing constructed and Bart and Dalai's exams and testing completed, Bart and Dalai were ready to head for Montana on Friday, May 14. Although the experienced buffaleros created a stress free environment for the animals, patiently coaxing Bart and waiting several hours for him to load, Bart determined that Saturday was a better day to travel and decided to wait until Saturday to load and depart. The buffaleros drove the 1,450 miles from Tucson to Polson straight through the to ease the stress on the animals and arrived at MLASR Sunday morning about 8 am. Bart bounded out of the trailer to meet his new friend, Ernie, a yearling buffalo purchased by MLASR to be Bart's companion. Bart and Ernie bonded within three minutes of encountering each other and headed off into the 10-acre pasture to stretch their legs. Dalai, although at first a little upset by Bart's new friend, is located in a pen along side Bart and is soon to meet the other 105 llamas residing at MLASR.