WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
WildEarth Guardians Calls Upon President and Congress to Abolish Federal Wildlife-Killing Agency

Group Releases Major Report, Demand to Agency, and Letter from Scientists and Conservationists
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

WASHINGTON D.C. - Today, WildEarth Guardians submitted a 108-page report to President Obama and Congress in support of the group’s position that the agency known as “Wildlife Services” should be abolished. This controversial branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible for killing over a million wild animals every year. The WildEarth Guardians’ report, called The War on Wildlife, describes the health, economic, and environmental problems associated with Wildlife Services. It is the first independent, comprehensive, national assessment of the agency in forty years, and the first call for the agency’s abolition in decades.

A host of conservation organizations, including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), joined WildEarth Guardians in a letter that calls upon the Obama Administration to cut funding for Wildlife Services. Also today, WildEarth Guardians issued an 82-page letter to Wildlife Services demanding that it come into compliance with federal law.

“In his inaugural address, President Obama promised he would make government accountable to the people,” said Wendy Keefover-Ring, Carnivore Protection Director for WildEarth Guardians. “A dramatic start involves abolishing Wildlife Services-an agency that has killed an uncountable number of native wildlife and family pets over its history. We ask Mr. Obama to get out his scalpel and protect the public’s hard-earned dollars from this unscrupulous agency.”

In 1931, Congress passed the Animal Damage Control Act, one of the center points of the Wildlife Services agency, which allows the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct campaigns for the destruction of animals such as mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, prairie dogs and bobcats for the protection of stock and other domestic animals. WildEarth Guardians has found that the control methods used by this agency are hazardous to people, wildlife and the environment.

WildEarth Guardians’ research reveals this agency is:

Biologically Unsound - Wildlife Services uses a “sledgehammer approach” to wildlife management, meaning over one million animals are killed each year using non-selective killing controls such as poisons, traps, and aerial gunning. Animals killed also include threatened and endangered species, a number which has steadily increased since 2005. The number of carnivores killed has also increased since 2005, which is of particular concern to conservation biologists, since these animals play vital roles in ecosystems;

Dangerous - Between 2002 and 2006, Wildlife Services failed several federal audits to safely inventory, store, and control access to chemical weapons, and in 2007 the agency itself admitted that it had experienced a “wake of accidents.” The aerial gunning program has killed at least 10 agents and injured 28 more. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency charged Wildlife Services for its illegal placement of a sodium cyanide M-44 (a highly lethal booby trap) on public land, which harmed a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and killed his dog. Additionally, Wildlife Services puts little emphasis on using non-lethal methods, and puts few resources towards developing new, ethical non-lethal research;

Unnecessary and Fiscally Unsound - Taxpayers are paying the bill for these activities, and Wildlife Services fails to protect the businesses it supposedly helps. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Services shows that most livestock losses come from weather, disease, illness, and birthing problems, and not predation. Carnivores killed less than 1% of cattle (0.18%) and approximately 3% of sheep produced in the U.S.;

Out of Step with American Values - Americans value wildlife and abhor animal cruelty. Yet, Wildlife Services not only kills tens of thousands of targeted wild animals annually, their activities also result in the unintentional deaths of many others, including pets, using indiscriminate and agonizing poisons, torturous traps, and even dynamite.

The War on Wildlife report shows that in the years 2004 to 2007 the agency spent a total of $427 million to kill 8.4 million animals and currently, its budget is at a record high while sheep production in the U.S. is at a record low. Additionally, two National Audubon Society reports have noted that even common birds are disappearing.

“We call upon the President and Congress to abolish Wildlife Services because it has long outlived its usefulness,” said Keefover-Ring. “While it burdens taxpayers, Wildlife Services also puts the nation at risk and destroys our precious wildlife and pets. Other agencies or private enterprise can step forward and take on any beneficial aspects of Wildlife Services’ work.”

WildEarth Guardians believes that a small number of Wildlife Services’ actions that may be needed, could be better handled by other, more responsible entities, such as the FAA or individual states. Bird-strike mitigation can be handled by the FAA, private industry, or by individual airports-as has been done by Portland, Oregon International Airport. States can be charged with handling feral hog concerns, and the Fish and Wildlife Services can manage individual wolves that prey on livestock or exotic brown tree snake elimination.

“The time for government-sponsored, indiscriminate killing is over,” states Keefover-Ring.

View the War on Wildlife Report

View the Demand Letter to Wildlife Services

View the Sign-On letter to the Obama Administration

More Information from War on Wildlife Report and Demand Letter:

Endangered Species:

The past decade shows an escalating number of slain endangered species, especially wolves-both gray and Mexican wolves [Table 1 and Figure 1]. A record 340 gray wolves and additional four Mexican gray wolves were killed in 2007-the highest number since 1996, the year the agency made its records public.

View Table 1.

View Figure 1.

Budget & Kill Numbers:

From 2005, Wildlife Services’ budget has steadily increased. [Table 2]

View Table 2.

Of particular concern to conservation biologists and others are the numbers of mammalian carnivores killed. [Table 3]

View Table 3.