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Protect Elk and Bison Refuges From Incurable Fatal Disease
Final signature count: 217
217 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site
A fatal, incurable disease has arrived at America's largest elk refuge — and the crowded feeding program is making it worse.
Every winter, thousands of elk crowd into Wyoming's National Elk Refuge near Jackson — densities that would never occur naturally. Now, a fatal and incurable disease has taken hold in that same landscape, and the window to demand better management is open right now.
Chronic Wasting Disease Is Here
In May 2026, officials confirmed the presence of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) on the National Elk Refuge.4 CWD is a prion disease that destroys the nervous systems of elk, deer, and other cervids. There is no treatment and no vaccine. Once it enters a population, it spreads — and it does not recede on its own.
Research from the U.S. Geological Survey modeled what CWD could do to the refuge's elk population and the surrounding region. The projections are stark: densely concentrated herds, exactly like those produced by the refuge's supplemental feeding program, are the conditions under which CWD spreads most efficiently.6
The Feeding Program Is Driving the Risk
The National Elk Refuge was established in the early 1900s to provide winter forage for elk displaced by agricultural and human development. Over decades, supplemental feeding produced a herd far larger than the natural landscape could support on its own — now considered the largest elk herd in the country. When thousands of animals converge at feed sites, nose-to-nose contact becomes routine. CWD spreads through saliva, urine, feces, and carcasses, and the prion can persist in soil for years.3 The combination of crowded animals and a disease that survives in the ground is exactly what researchers warn against.
The CWD confirmation has intensified long-running debates about whether the herd's size is ecologically viable — and what the refuge owes the animals it was created to protect.3
Elk Are Already Moving Beyond the Refuge
Climate is adding another dimension to this crisis. During the mild winter of 2025–2026, large numbers of elk left the refuge early and dispersed across the broader landscape, foraging on their own rather than waiting at feed sites.2 Warmer winters could make this pattern more common — which means CWD-infected animals moving through a wider area and potentially carrying the disease well beyond refuge boundaries.
The Federal Government Must Choose a Better Path
In August 2026, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement examining different approaches to bison and elk management on the refuge.1 One of the alternatives under consideration would continue current feeding practices — an approach that wildlife researchers and advocates argue fails to reckon with the confirmed disease threat.5 The decisions made through this process will shape these populations across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for generations.
Elk and bison are social animals capable of suffering. They deserve management built around their welfare, not just their numbers.
Sign the petition now to urge the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt a management plan that reduces dangerous crowding, curtails supplemental feeding over time, restores natural habitat, and gives elk and bison a real chance at a healthy future.
