In 2018 Wildlife Services reported killing nearly 1.5 million native animals nationwide. Most of the killing is in response to requests from the agriculture industry.... This agreement will ensure greater transparency and accountability from a federal agency that has run roughshod over America’s wildlife for far too long.
Coyote, Grant Teton National Park - image by Jim
Robertson, Animals in the Wild
Restrictions Aim to Protect Rare Tricolored Blackbirds, Beaver, Gray
Wolves...
In response to a lawsuit filed by wildlife advocacy groups, a federal
animal-killing program must restrict its use of bird-killing poisons in
Northern California and stop setting strangulation snares and other traps in
places like the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
The agreement, approved today by a San Francisco federal court, also directs
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to analyze the
environmental impacts of its killing of coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and
other wildlife in California’s “Sacramento District.” This 10-county region
covers Colusa, El Dorado, Lake, Marin, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, Solano,
Sonoma and Yolo counties.
“This victory will save hundreds of animals that would have needlessly
suffered and died in traps set by Wildlife Services over the next several
years,” said Collette Adkins, a
Center for
Biological Diversity attorney representing the conservation groups
involved in the lawsuit. “It’s another important win in our fight to shut
down this agency’s destructive and indiscriminate war on bobcats, coyotes
and other wildlife.”
Under the court order approved today, Wildlife Services must provide, by the
end of 2023, an “environmental impact statement” that analyzes the effects
and risks of its wildlife-killing program in the Sacramento District. It
must also offer opportunities for public input.
Pending completion of that study, the court order imposes several measures
to protect wildlife in the 10-county area. For example, it restricts use of
the avicide DRC-1339 to prevent accidental poisoning of state-threatened
tricolored blackbirds. It also bans any use of body-gripping traps, such as
strangulation snares, in several areas.
The court order further ends most beaver-killing in waterways where
endangered wildlife depends on beaver-created habitats. The order also
spells out several measures to protect California’s endangered gray wolves
from being accidentally killed in traps set for other carnivores.
“We are pleased that Wildlife Services has agreed to consider the
environmental impacts of its wildlife-killing program,” said Cristina
Stella, an attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Wild animals in
California deserve our protection, and this victory assures that they will
be free from some of the cruelest killing practices until Wildlife Services
complies with federal law.”
“This agreement will ensure greater transparency and accountability from a
federal agency that has run roughshod over America’s wildlife for far too
long,” said Camilla Fox, Project Coyote executive director. “Many cost
effective, non-lethal solutions exist to address human-wildlife conflicts
that are more humane, ecologically sound and ethically defensible. We are
hopeful that this settlement will propel a shift in this direction
statewide.”
Today’s victory is the result of a lawsuit filed in August 2019 by the
Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Legal Defense Fund and Project
Coyote.
Background
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services is a
multimillion-dollar federal program that uses painful leghold traps,
strangulation snares, poisons and aerial gunning to kill coyotes, cougars,
birds and other wild animals. Most of the killing is in response to requests
from the agriculture industry.
In 2018 Wildlife Services reported killing nearly 1.5 million native animals
nationwide. That year, in California, the program reported killing 26,441
native animals, including 3,826 coyotes, 859 beavers, 170 foxes, 83 mountain
lions and 105 black bears. The 5,675 birds killed in 2018 in California
included blackbirds, ducks, egrets, hawks, owls and doves.
Today’s victory follows several other recent wins by wildlife advocates in
their campaigns against Wildlife Services, including in California (2019 and
2017), Oregon (2018), Colorado (2017), Arizona (2017), Idaho (2019 and 2018)
and Wyoming (2019).
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