Dear Guardian,
It’s tax day: do you know where your money is going?
You may be shocked to learn that a secretive federal program
is pocketing taxpayer money and using it to wage a war on wildlife.
“Wildlife Services” exterminates literally millions of
native animals every year. The program is cruel, unscientific and wasteful, and
can’t even account for where its money goes.[1]
We want safe havens for wildlife to thrive, not
taxpayer-funded massacres on our public lands. Contact your congressional representatives
and ask them to make sure your tax money does not fund this destructive,
out-of-control program. Defund Wildlife
Services.
The program uses dangerous and wasteful methods including traps,
poisons, and aerial gunning to slaughter a host of native species, from 561 black
bears and 501 wolves to 12,561 black-tailed prairie dogs killed in 2012.[2]
Their crimes? Doing what comes naturally.
The government spent $58 million to
kill those animals; with that money it could pay the yearly salaries of 850
elementary school teachers or police officers, provide 7,400 students with a
year’s worth of university scholarships, assist 12,000 people who need low-income
healthcare for a year, provide a year of 100% renewable solar energy for 45,500
households, or buy disaster preparedness kits for 470,000 families of four.[3]
For the Wild,
Taylor Jones
Endangered Species Advocate
WildEarth Guardians
tjones@wildearthguardians.org
[1] See the independent audit
from APHIS Program Accountability and Assessment here
[http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/May2012-APHIS-PAA-Audit-medres.pdf]
