Defenders of Wildlife Blog

This summer’s issue sports a wide-eyed harbor seal on the cover–one of this year’s honorable mentions in our annual photo contest. Go inside to get the story behind the grand prize winner’s grizzly bear shot.

This edition also tackles the problems of lead in endangered condors and highlights the critical importance of bees to our food supply. You’ll also find grim statistics behind Wildlife Services war on predators and the animals they kill by accident. On the climate change front, there’s an on-the-ground example of what is already happening at a national wildlife refuge on coastal land in Delaware.

And if you don’t yet subscribe to the hard copy, which comes chock-full of beautiful photos not featured on the website, get it delivered right to your doorstep by joining Defenders today.

 

A couple of weeks ago, we linked to a Sacramento Bees series about Wildlife Services, the federal agency responsible for killing millions of animals over the last decade. The articles showed how the agency uses a kill-first mentality when it comes to managing wildlife conflicts, resulting in significant numbers of accidental animal deaths—including family pets and endangered species like golden eagles—and imbalances in predator-prey numbers that could have serious environmental consequences over the long term.

We then put out an action alert to urge Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to reform Wildlife Services from the federal government’s top wildlife killers to a program that can truly resolve wildlife conflicts. And nearly 55,000 Defenders supporters responded!

Now the Sacramento Bee is reporting that two Congressman have called for an investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee into the agency’s activities.

It’s clear the movement to reform Wildlife Services is gaining momentum and you can help keep it going! Your donation will help Defenders:

• Continue to expose Wildlife Services’ “kill-first” mentality through media outreach, public education and grassroots mobilization;
• Pressure federal officials to reform Wildlife Services into a program that can effectively prevent and address wildlife conflicts by emphasizing non-lethal methods;
• Expand our pioneering on-the-ground coexistence work with ranchers to keep wolves and other predators out of harm’s way; and
• Much more to protect our wildlife and wild places.

Please donate now to support our work to reform Wildlife Services from a program that relies on killing to one that can more effectively resolve wildlife conflicts using proven non-lethal tools.

 

 

Last week, a three-part series by Sacramento Bee Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Tom Knudson shed light on the federal agency responsible for killing so-called problem wildlife, an agency that many feel has lurked in the shadows for far too long.

Each year, more than 100,000 animals are killed by Wildlife Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the name of livestock protection. More recently, the agency has also been called in to kill wolves and other animals in order to artificially boost game populations for hunters.

But as environmental groups have argued for decades, Wildlife Services’ approach is not only very costly but also often ineffective. Further, their shoot-first mentality perpetuates antiquated ideas about predator control instead of encouraging innovative nonlethal practices that allow people, livestock and wildlife to coexist.

In part one (“The killing agency: Wildlife Services’ brutal methods leave a trail of animal death,” Apr. 29), Knudson describes many of the lethal tools used by Wildlife Services to eliminate unwanted wildlife. Some of the more indiscriminate tools include head snares, leg hold traps, body grip traps and small poison capsules (see infographic), all of which are deadly to numerous species. Unfortunately, they do not always get their intended target. As a result, thousands of animals are “accidentally” killed each year, including some imperiled species as well as beloved pets. One former Wildlife Services trapper-turned-whistleblower reveals that he buried endangered golden eagles that got caught in snares he set for coyotes. Another Oregon family lost their dog to a Wildlife Services trap that was set to catch nutria in a suburban housing development.

Knudson moves on in part two (“Wildlife Services’ deadly force opens Pandora’s box of environmental problems,” Apr. 30) to present a wealth of evidence that suggests simply killing predators isn’t a viable solution. Coyote populations, for example, continue to rebound despite intensive lethal control by Wildlife Services. And in places where coyote populations have declined significantly, rodents, rabbits and feral cats tend to thrive, bringing their own set of problems. As scientists better understand the relationship between species, it has become increasingly clear that trying to wipe out an important native species can put the entire system out of whack.

Defenders wolf expert Suzanne Stone says the agency has completely failed to live up to its mission by relying solely on lethal control.

“If you look at their mandate, we could not have written it better for them,” said Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife, who has worked with Wildlife Services employees to promote nonlethal control. “It’s all about supporting wildlife conservation and promoting humane tools.

“That’s not what is happening on the ground,” Stone said. “Unfortunately, in parts of the western United States it just seems like they are still in the Dark Ages. They go at this as a kill mission. They are at war with wildlife.”

Defenders and several of our colleagues are also mentioned in part three (“Suggestions in changing Wildlife Services range from new practices to outright bans,” May 6), which highlights many of the nonlethal alternatives we have been working hard to promote. Wildlife Services has actually helped develop some of these tools and could play a critical role in educating ranchers about how to use them. But so far, they’re field agents have been unwilling to do so, Suzanne told the Bee.

“Their researchers are some of the top nonlethal specialists in the world,” Stone said. “They are developing and testing a lot of tools. But those tools are more often than not ridiculed by their field agents. They promote using lethal control almost always.”

The Wildlife Services agent who helped out at Lava Lake “was ridiculed, undermined and shunned by his own agency,” she added. “Not only are they undermining the use of this stuff in the field, they are actually undermining states that are trying to use these things.”

Thanks to Tom Knudson and the Sacramento Bee for exposing some of Wildlife Services more insidious practices and offering suggestions for reform. (Click here to read the Bee’s full editorial) We hope that additional scrutiny will inspire change in an agency that could be a helpful partner in promoting coexistence instead of needlessly killing our native wildlife.

Today marks the 80^th anniversary of the Animal Damage Control Act, which codified the federal government’s authority to eradicate wildlife for the benefit of the livestock industry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture now implements the Act through the deceptively named Wildlife Services agency, and their purported mission is “to improve the coexistence of people and wildlife.” But Wildlife Services really spends much of their time killing unwanted animals that pose a threat to sheep and cattle.

In 2009, Wildlife Services killed more than 100,000 mammalian carnivores, including foxes, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and wolves. These native animals were shot from airplanes and helicopters, poisoned in their dens, snared in traps and euthanized.

These drastic measures are not only costly, they’re generally ineffective in reducing losses and promoting long-term “coexistence.” Meanwhile, there are extremely effective nonlethal tools at their disposal that never see the light of day.

Each year Wildlife Services receives tens of millions of our taxpayer dollars for the purpose of “livestock protection.” More often than not, this money is only paying to kill our native carnivores. And many of the animals are killed “preventatively” in the fall and winter, before they’ve preyed on any livestock. To make matters worse, much of the killing is done on federal lands, not private property.

It’s time to hold Wildlife Services accountable. The unchecked killing of America’s native wildlife has gone on long enough. After eight decades of running amok, Wildlife Services needs to finally shape up or ship out.

If Congress is serious about fiscal discipline, revamping this draconian program would be a great place to start.

Wildlife Services is at it again: The federal wildlife killers are once again seeking to slaughter wolves from the skies in Central Idaho.

This terrible aerial gunning plan could kill hundreds of wolves in the area—all to help state officials artificially boost elk populations.

Take action now: Speak out against Wildlife Services’ terrible aerial wolf-slaughter plan for Central Idaho.

Idaho officials are claiming that wolves are the major cause of elk declines in parts of the state. But in 23 of the 29 elk management zones, populations of these animals are at or above population targets—many of the areas experiencing declines in elk numbers contain no wolves.

And the Clearwater National Forest—one of the areas targeted by Wildlife Services’ aerial gunning plan—was experiencing steep declines in elk numbers by 1988, long before wolves returned to the area.

Earlier this year, thanks to the support of tens of thousands of Defenders supporters, Wildlife Services pulled back an earlier plan seeking to gas helpless wolf pups in their dens and surgically sterilize alpha wolf pairs.

But now state officials are calling in Wildlife Services to slaughter entire wolf packs from the skies to artificially boost game populations—even as wolves remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. Speak out now to stop Wildlife Services’ wolf-killing plan—before the slaughter from the skies starts.

Wildlife Services should certainly not be in the business of artificially boosting game populations. They should be fulfilling their mission to “create a balance that allows people and wildlife to coexist peacefully.” Instead, Wildlife Services wants to expand their role as the federal government’s wildlife hitmen.

Please take action today and speak out to help stop Wildlife Services’ terrible plan to bring aerial gunning to Idaho.

Aren’t wolves in the Northern Rockies still protected under the Endangered Species Act?

You wouldn’t know it by looking at a proposal by Wildlife Services—the federal government’s chief wolf killers. The agency, which is under the direction of President Obama’s Department of Agriculture (USDA), is currently proposing  to kill hundreds of wolves in the Northern Rockies and Greater Yellowstone.

Please help us stop this awful proposal. Urge President Obama’s head of the Department of Agriculture (which oversees Wildlife Services) to nix the Wildlife Services plan to expand their wolf-killing role in Idaho.

It’s a plan that would make Sarah Palin smile. The agency wants to expand their wolf-killing operations, working with Idaho officials to kill up to 80 percent of the wolves in some areas.

Their plan also includes killing entire packs… using helicopters to chase down and kill wolves… gassing helpless wolf pups and their mothers in their dens… even surgically sterilizing alpha wolf pairs and more!

It was just a few weeks ago that a federal court judge restored life-saving protections to wolves. Yet these ecologically important animals are now facing what seem like new threats daily.

Take action now. Send a message to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and urge him to put a stop to this terrible plan before it starts.

It was just a few weeks ago that a federal court judge restored life-saving protections to wolves. Yet these ecologically important animals are now facing what seem like new threats daily:

Right now, anti-wolf extremists are urging their followers to illegally kill wolves—using disturbing slogans like “Take two [wolves] down in the evening…and call no one in the morning.” Idaho governor Butch Otter could make matters even worse, threatening to pull his state state out of wolf management—a plan that would effectively allow anti-wolf extremists to illegally kill wolves without state intervention.

And new legislation in Congress could undermine the Endangered Species Act and once again strip vital federal protections from wolves in Idaho and Montana—leaving these animals at the mercy of state-based plans that focus on killing rather than a lasting future for wolves.

Defenders is working hard to address each of these threats, but right now, we need your help to stop the Wildlife Services proposal to slaughter wolves. Please take action now…