Mendocino County Seeking Proposals for Wildlife Exclusionary Services Contractor

We want to share the exciting news that Mendocino County has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to find vendors for wildlife exclusionary services for Mendocino County residents. You can find a brief announcement of the RFP here. 

Wildlife exclusion is a coexistence practice focused on preventing entry of wildlife into places where they can come into conflict with people, companion animals, or livestock. The practice also emphasizes sealing entry points  to keep wildlife from returning. Exclusion is a more effective, economical, and humane approach versus lethal control in wildlife conflicts.

Thanks to your voices, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors voted to terminate Mendocino County’s contract with USDA’s Wildlife Services agency on August 17, which was  a victory 10 years in the making for Project Coyote and our ally, the Mendocino Non-lethal Wildlife Alliance (MNWA). Project Coyote began work on ousting the misnamed Wildlife Services in 2014 when information was revealed that a federal Wildlife Services trapper had killed more than 400 dogs in the county during the course of his work as a taxpayer-subsidized federal trapper. The Wildlife Services program uses taxpayer dollars to kill wildlife using cruel and indiscriminate methods including snares and Conibear kill-traps. In 2020, the program killed 1.5 million wild animals, nearly 25,000 of those were in California alone. 

Since terminating the contract with Wildlife Services, the County has been working to create a nonlethal wildlife exclusion service for Mendocino County residents with input from Project Coyote. This RFP is another big step towards creating a nonlethal conflict resolution plan for Mendocino County. 

Help us continue to promote coexistence in Mendocino County by being part of the next step!

If you or anyone you know is interested in submitting a proposal in response to this RFP, please review and/or share with interested parties the full 37 page RFP. The full RFP provides extensive details on timeline, proposal submission guidelines, and points of contact for pre-submittal inquiries. The deadline to submit a proposal is February 1, 2022. 

This is a fantastic development, and we are confident that a skilled vendor will be found to implement nonlethal conflict strategies that work for both the people and wildlife of Mendocino County. 

Thank you for helping to protect people and wildlife in Mendocino County!

For the wild,

PLEASE SHARE THIS ALERT WITH OTHERS!