SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Legal Defense Fund and Project Coyote today sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program over its outdated wildlife-killing plan for 10 counties in Northern California.
Most Americans are probably unfamiliar with the federal government’s taxpayer-subsidized killing campaign carried out every year against public wildlife on public lands, most of them located in the West. Most are probably unaware that their hard-earned money, paid in taxes to Uncle Sam, helps to operate a federal agency known as Wildlife Services, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
For decades, USDA Wildlife Services (“Wildlife Services”) government agents trapped, shot, and killed hundreds of bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions and other wildlife in Mendocino – and inadvertently killed non-target species, including imperiled wildlife and beloved pets, in the process. The County used taxpayer dollars to pay for their lethal wildlife management program, often on behalf of commercial agricultural interests.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, a coalition of animal protection and conservation groups sent a letter to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and Humboldt County Agriculture Commissioner, urging them to terminate their contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services (“Wildlife Services”). The federal wildlife-killing agency’s methods are unnecessarily cruel, and the Humboldt County contract violates state law. The coalition, led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, includes the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Mountain Lion Foundation, Project Coyote, and WildEarth Guardians.
DEWEY-HUMBOLDT, Ariz. — At the urging of Arizona citizens and local, state and national wildlife and animal protection organizations, the Dewey-Humboldt Town Council voted 4 to 2 last week in favor of a resolution that opposes wildlife killing contests. In these cruel events, participants compete for fun and prizes by killing the greatest number or the heaviest of the target species.