Winter 2024
Through strong coalitions, we successfully banned Wildlife Killing Contests banned in NY and petitioned USDA to reform Wildlife Services. We also welcomed several new team members this winter and were humbled by another succesfull end of year matching gift campaign to fund our work for wild carnivores!
Mexican Gray Wolves Are Under Attack!
A report in The Intercept was published this week detailing three years of investigative work by Western Watersheds Project in coordination with an agency whistleblower, uncovering systemic fraud and corruption by the federal Wildlife Services program, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Feather River Action! calls for Non-Lethal Predator Defense Program
Feather River Action! calls for Non-Lethal Predator Defense Program to replace USDA Wildlife Services presence as contract comes up for renewal.
The Department of Agriculture Killed 1.2 Million Wild Animals Last Year
The mission of Wildlife Services, an office in the Department of Agriculture (USDA), is “to provide federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist.” In practice, that means slaughtering animals in droves. New data the USDA released this week shows that in 2019, the program killed approximately 1.2 million animals native to North America. That includes hundreds of gray wolves, black bears, and bobcats, thousands of red foxes, tens of thousands of beavers, and hundreds of thousands of birds. Fewer than 3,000 of those animals were killed unintentionally.