Reforming
Wildlife Services
REFORMING A ROGUE AGENCY
Help us Reform USDA's Wildlife Services Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Wildlife Services” program is responsible for the killing of millions of wild animals annually, using public taxpayer dollars to kill wildlife held in the public trust, damaging ecosystems, and putting public safety and health at risk.
Wildlife Services has used indiscriminate and inhumane tools to kill wildlife across the country for over a century, including traps, snares, aerial gunning, M-44 cyanide bombs and other deadly poisons. Since 2004, the agency has killed more than 56 million wild animals in the U.S.—1.45 million animals in 2023 alone. The agency spends over 100 million dollars annually on its wildlife killing operations.
While the program claims its goal is to allow people and wildlife to coexist, nothing could be further from the truth. Wildlife Services wasn’t created to serve wildlife—it was created to “control” wildlife and abate conflicts—largely through killing—at the behest of ranchers, commercial agriculture, and private interests.
Our Solution
Project Coyote’s campaign to Reform Wildlife Services targets all levels of governance to reform the lethal and inhumane killing practices of this outdated and rogue federal program. At the local level, we’ve worked to cancel county contracts with Wildlife Services and replace these with non-lethal programs to address conflict. At the state and federal level, we’re working to remove some of the most inhumane tools used by the agencies, such as M-44 cyanide bombs.
We are also calling for comprehensive agency reform to modernize this program by requiring humane treatment of wildlife and operating with greater transparency and accountability to the public. Our goal is to hold the agency accountable to standards of public safety, humaneness, and transparency and ensure the health and well-being of people, wildlife, and companion animals.
TAKE ACTION
Help us Ban M-44 Cyanide Bombs on Public Lands
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ANNUAL KILLING REPORT
In 2023, Wildlife Services intentionally killed:
SHORT FILMS
Watch movies about Reforming Wildlife Services
Playlist
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
Project Coyote Joins More Than 60 Conservation Groups to Oppose Deadly M-44s Project Coyote joined over 60 conservation groups, led by the Center for Biological
April 15, 2024 Media Contacts: info@projectcoyote.org, 415.326.4110 LARKSPUR, CA — Wildlife Services, often known as the killing arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), just
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — October 19, 2022 Counties agree to suspend wildlife-killing contract comply with CEQA and analyze the ecological impacts of widespread slaughter Quincy,
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MARCH 2, 2022 Public Interest Groups Sue Plumas and Sierra Counties Over Taxpayer-Funded Wildlife Killing Environmental Violations, Animal Cruelty and Threat
RESOURCES
Further Resources on Wildlife Services Reform:
- Exposed, the 2013 award winning documentary about Wildlife Services
- Michael Robinson’s book Predatory Bureaucracy – The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West
- Tom Knudson’s investigative cover-series The Killing Agency in the Sacramento Bee
- Ben Goldfarb’s featured article Wildlife Services and its eternal war on predators in High Country News
- Camilla Fox’s piece 80th anniversary of the Animal Damage Control Act – No Celebration for Wildlife in Huffington Post
- Peter Fimrite’s piece Wildlife groups take aim at lethal control of predators in SFGATE
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Wild carnivores are among the most persecuted, and ecologically vital, animals. They need your help.
