Groups Urge Agriculture Secretary Nominee to Halt Mass Killing of Wildlife

[Guest guest]

For Immediate Release, January 2, 2009

Contacts:

 

Brian Vincent, Big Wildlife, (604) 618-1030

Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, (505) 534-0360

 

Groups Urge Agriculture Secretary Nominee to Halt

Mass Killing of Wildlife

 

More Than 100 Organizations Say Federal 'Lethal Control' of Bears,

Cougars, Coyotes, Wolves Is Cruel and Unnecessary

 

WILLIAMS, Ore.— Today, 115 conservation, animal protection, ranching,

and faith-based organizations submitted a letter to Tom Vilsack, the

Agriculture Secretary nominee, urging him to end the federal

government's systematic killing of wildlife, including wolves,

coyotes, bears, cougars, and prairie dogs. Members of the coalition –

comprised of Big Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Creation

Care Study Program, Christians for Environmental Stewardship, Humane

Society of the United States, Public Employees for Environmental

Responsibility, Sierra Club, and Ranchers for Rural Responsibility,

among many others – said that each year the U.S. Department of

Agriculture's Wildlife Services kills millions of wild animals,

primarily on behalf of agribusiness. Coalition members said halting

the agency's " lethal control " programs should be one of the nominee's

first steps once he is confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture. (See

complete list of signatories below.)

 

USDA Wildlife Services, a secretive federal agency that has largely

avoided public scrutiny, employs a variety of cruel and often

haphazard and indiscriminate methods to kill wildlife. Animals are

shot from airplanes and helicopters, poisoned, gassed in their dens,

bludgeoned after capture in steel leghold traps, strangled in wire

snares, and pursued with hounds and then shot. Other animals, even

family dogs and cats, are unintentionally injured or killed by agency

actions. In 2007 alone, Wildlife Services killed 2.4 million animals,

including 121,565 carnivores. The agency reported it spent more than

$100 million in 2007 to kill wildlife, most of which was funded by

taxpayers. Among those animals killed in 2007: 90,262 coyotes, 2,277

gray foxes, 2,412 red foxes, 2,090 bobcats, 1,133 cats, 552 dogs, 577

badgers, and 340 gray wolves.

 

" Wildlife Services has much blood on its hands. The agency is

committing crimes against animals that make Michael Vick's Bad Newz

Kennels look like doggy day care, " said Brian Vincent, communications

director for the wildlife protection group Big Wildlife. " Most

Americans have no idea their tax dollars are used to brutalize

countless bears, cougars, wolves, and coyotes. "

 

USDA Wildlife Services kills carnivores and smaller animals such as

prairie dogs to appease the livestock industry and kills a myriad of

other animals such as blackbirds on behalf of other agribusiness

enterprises. This winter, Wildlife Services killed all 27 wolves of a

pack near Kalispell, Mont. In 2008, the agency wiped out seven wolf

packs, pups and all, in the Big Sky state. In Oregon, Wildlife

Services is coordinating with state officials to kill nearly 2,000

cougars. In New Mexico and Arizona over the past 10 years, Wildlife

Services has killed and removed far more than the 50 or so remaining

endangered Mexican gray wolves in the wild. The agency has perpetuated

hostility towards many carnivore species, especially coyotes, by

characterizing them as vermin or nuisance animals. Each year, the

agency kills tens of thousands of coyotes.

 

" `Wildlife Services' " is a perfectly Orwellian name for an agency

that serves wildlife with cyanide baits, lead bullets, and steel

leghold traps, " said Michael Robinson, conservation advocate for the

Center for Biological Diversity in Silver City, N.M. Robinson is the

author of a detailed history of the agency titled " Predatory

Bureaucracy: The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the

West " (University Press of Colorado, 2005).

 

Robinson's book recounts that Wildlife Services was founded in 1885

under a different name, and began its wildlife extermination program

in 1915. In 1928, responding to criticism from wildlife biologists,

the agency pledged not to exterminate any species and stopped using

the word " exterminate, " substituting it with " control. " However, in

1945 the agency killed the last gray wolf in the western United

States, in southern Colorado. In the 1960s, after Wildlife Services

officials told Congress the agency would not exterminate wildlife, it

wiped out red wolves from the southeastern United States, California

condors in their namesake state, and blackfooted ferrets on the Great

Plains, as well as the Mexican gray wolf in the Republic of Mexico,

having gained permission from Mexican authorities. The last survivors

of each of these species were captured, bred in captivity and

subsequently reintroduced to save the species from extinction.

 

Members of the conservation and animal-protection group coalition that

sent the letter to Vilsack said that Wildlife Services' killing

program ignores the importance of carnivores. As " keystone species, "

carnivores play a pivotal role in sustaining ecological integrity and

preserving species' diversity. For example, large carnivores regulate

deer and elk numbers, as well as smaller mammal populations. Wolf

reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park has benefited bears,

foxes, beavers and songbirds, among other animals. Conversely, ongoing

Wildlife Services persecution of wolves continues to harm these and

other wildlife species in the vast swaths of the West where wolves

have not been permitted to recolonize.

 

Many non-lethal solutions are less expensive and more effective at

reducing conflicts than killing, coalition members said. Ranchers who

use guard dogs, llamas, burros, or who mix cattle and sheep report

fewer or no predation problems. Nighttime penning, penning during

lambing and calving season, and removing livestock carcasses from

pastures also reduce conflicts. In addition, strobes and sirens are

effective for preventing predation. Members of the groups said that

monies spent on killing wildlife would be better used to educate and

aid ranchers, farmers, and others to upgrade their fencing or assist

them with utilizing non-lethal techniques. Eliminating subsidized

domestic-animal grazing on public lands would sharply reduce

encounters with carnivores, they said.

 

###

 

SIGNATORIES OF LETTER TO AGRICULTURE SECRETARY NOMINEE INCLUDE:

Action for Animals • Action for Animals Network • Alabama Wildlife

Advocates • Alaska Wildlife Alliance • All-Creatures.org • Allegheny

Defense Project • Alliance for Animals • Alliance for the Wild Rockies

• American Lands Alliance • Animal Advocates of the Inland Northwest •

Animal Defense League of Arizona • Animal Protection of New Mexico •

Animal Protection Voters • Animal Welfare Institute • BARK • Bear

League • Bear River Watershed Council • Big Wildlife • Biodiversity

Conservation Alliance • Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation • Blue

Mountains Biodiversity Project • Born Free USA • Boulder-White Clouds

Council • Buffalo Field Campaign • Californians for Western Wilderness

• Cascadia Wildlands Project • Center for Biological Diversity •

Center for Native Ecosystems • Christians for Environmental

Stewardship • Chico For Animal Rights • Conservation Congress •

Conservation Northwest • Conservation Science Institute • Cougar Fund

• Creation Care Study Program • Eco-Eating • Ecological Conservation

Organization • Environmental Protection Information Center • Footloose

Montana • Forest Issues Group • Friends of McKay • Gila Conservation

Coalition • Grand Canyon Trust • Great Old Broads for Wilderness •

Great Plains Restoration Council • HEAL • Heartwood • Hells Canyon

Preservation Council • High Uintas Preservation Council • Higher

Ground-Animal Advocacy • Humane Voters of Arizona • In Defense of

Animals • Jewish Vegetarians of North America • Kentucky Heartwood •

Kind Choices • Kinship Circle • Klamath Basin Audubon Society •

Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center • Lands Council • Last Chance for

Animals Arizona • League of Humane Voters • Maine Animal Coalition •

MassPAWS • Mountain Cats Trust • New Dawn Montana Farm Sanctuary • New

Hampshire Animal Rights League • Newton County Wildlife Association •

Northwest Animal Rights Network • Options for Southern Oregon • Orange

County People for Animals • Oregon Cougar Action Team • Oregon Humane

Society • Oregon Wildlife Federation • Pacific Biodiversity Institute

• PEACE~People for the End of Animal Cruelty and Exploitation • Power

of One Animal Rights Group • Prairie Dog Pals • Progressive Animal

Welfare Society (PAWS) • Public Employees for Environmental

Responsibility • Public Lands Without Livestock • Ranchers for Rural

Responsibility • Restoring Eden • Rocky Mountain Animal Defense •

Sheep Mountain Alliance • Sierra Club • Sierra Club Tehipite Chapter •

Siskiyou Project • Soda Mountain Wilderness Council • Southern Utah

Wilderness Alliance • Southwest Environmental Center • St. Louis

Animal Rights Team • Student Animal Legal Defense Fund • The Humane

Society of the United States • The Rewilding Institute • TrapFree

Oregon • Umpqua Watersheds • Utah Environmental Congress • Vegetarian

Advocates • W.O.L.F. Sanctuary • Western Nebraska Resources Council •

Western Watersheds Project • Western Wildlife Conservancy • Whidbey

Environmental Action Network • Wild Virginia • Wild West Institute •

Wilderness Watch • Wildlands CPR • Wildlife Alliance of Maine •

Wildlife Watch • Wildlife Watchers • WolfWood Refuge and Adoption

Center • World Temperate Rainforest Network

 

 

from:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/wildlife-services-01\

-02-2009.html