Environmentalists sue Trump’s USDA for killing more than 1.2 million native wild animals last year

Recent federal data revealed taxpayers had funded the killing of over 1.2 million native animal species last year via Wildlife Services; a program within the USDA. 

The lawsuit states poisons, traps, and gun downs were used on several of our nation’s most majestic animals, including wolves, bears, coyotes, gray foxes, skunks, and mountain lions in a futile attempt to save livestock and other “resources.”

BREAKING
In 2019, USDA’s Wildlife Services KILLED:

▪ 62,002 coyotes
▪ 24,543 beavers
▪ 800 bobcats
▪1362 gray foxes
▪ 1280 red foxes
▪ 400 black bears
▪ 302 gray wolves
▪ 308 cougars

Want to guess who paid for it?

Taxpayers like YOU.https://t.co/DgQuOvOk7f

— Wolf Conservation Center (@nywolforg) October 7, 2020

According to Common Dreams, the program has failed to provide an Environmental Impact Statement on the program’s impact on key ecosystems, nor has it provided timely supplemental analysis mandated by law. As such, the document states, WS is disregarding “new scientific publications on the ineffectiveness of lethal predator control and the negative cascading ecological consequences of removing keystone species from their native ecosystems,” according to the filing.

“Wildlife Services is infamous for the scope and cruelty of its killing campaigns across the nation. To carry out such a horrific onslaught on native wildlife in the midst of a mass extinction event and a climate crisis, without any real knowledge of the impact is utterly outrageous,” Chris Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians stated.  

WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit that protects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West, has filed the lawsuit accusing Wildlife Services (WS) of running afoul of various federal regulations stipulated by the National Environmental Policy Act, Council on Environmental Quality regulations, and Administrative Procedure Act.

On the heels of USDA’s Wildlife Services admitting this week that they killed over 1.2 million native animals in 2019, we just sued them over their antiquated #wildlife killing program in New Mexico. #EndTheWarOnWildlife #StopExtinction https://t.co/JB5Da5tK6h

— WildEarth Guardians (@wildearthguard) October 11, 2020

“This mass slaughter is carried out in our backyards, on public lands, and in beloved parks; there is no limit to the program’s reach. Year, after year, Wildlife Services ignores the public’s desire for coexistence with wildlife, opting instead to kill bears for scratching trees in the woods, coyotes for making dens on public land, and wolves for preying on unattended cattle in the wilderness,” says Samantha Bruegger, Wildlife Coexistence Campaigner for WildEarth Guardians.