WildEarth Guardians

Friday, June 22, 2012
The Deadliest Dozen Counties in the American West

Report Maps Wildlife Services' Killing Fields
Contact: Wendy Keefover (303) 573-4898 x 1162

Denver, Colo. WildEarth Guardians today released The Deadliest Dozen Counties in the American West, which documents where the federal government has killed the most mammalian carnivores (including bears, bobcats, coyotes, cougars, foxes, and wolves) in the West over an 11-year period. Wildlife Services, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, uses aerial and ground gunning, poisons, traps, snares, and hounds to execute an anachronistic and wasteful agenda. The agency’s activities harm wildlife, the environment, wildlife recreationists, and taxpayers, while it purports to benefit a few, privileged agricultural interests.

“It’s a desperate situation for wildlife that live in certain districts, especially Elko County, Nevada, which is the deadliest county in the West,” stated Wendy Keefover, Director of Carnivore Protection for WildEarth Guardians.

Wildlife Services, mandated to protect agribusiness (both domestic livestock and crops) from wildlife, also kills native carnivores with the goal of reducing predation on wild ungulates at the behest of some hunting organizations. During the period 1998 to 2008, Nevada’s Elko County (with a kill count of 17,805), Oregon’s Malheur County (11,099), Wyoming’s Carbon County (10,260), and California’s Kern County (9,639) were the deadliest counties in the West, while the States of Wyoming and Nevada have the most deadly dozen counties, with 5 and 3 counties, respectively.

Wildlife Services reported killing the most carnivores in the States of Montana (94,114), Wyoming (82,547), and California (76,110) between 1998-2008 (the majority of which were coyotes). While the States of Colorado (with a body count of 31,338), Arizona (10,018), and Washington (6,771) had the lowest kills of mammalian carnivores in the West between 1998 to 2008.

“Congress shouldn’t hesitate another moment to axe Wildlife Services’ budget,” emphasized Keefover. “Wildlife Services depletes our coffers and devastates our wildlife with completely unscientific and unethical intent.”

###

View the Deadliest Dozen report. 

Read about WildEarth Guardians’ legal challenge to Wildlife Services’

wildlife-killing programs.

View the latest data and information regarding Wildlife Services.

View related WildEarth Guardians’ reports:

War on Wildlife: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Wildlife Services":  A Report to President Barack Obama and Congress

Northern Rocky Mountain Wolves:A Public Policy Process Failure: How Two Special Interest Groups Hijacked Wolf Conservation in America