aerial gunning of wolves
UDATE: May 2, 2012
In light of the Sacramento Bee’s explosive expose on Wildlife Services and the lawsuit filed against the agency by WildEarth Guardians, I felt it would be important to re-post this 2009 piece.
Remember this is a repost, reflecting what was happening in 2009, so a few of the links are outdated but Wildlife Services hasn’t changed, they’re still doing what they’ve been doing for decades, killing wildlife.
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October 19, 2009
Who is Wildlife Services? If you asked the majority of Americans, they probably couldn’t tell you. It was formerly known as “Animal Damage Control (ADC)â€. The agency is the extermination arm of the Department of Agriculture.
“It’s just a subsidy to agriculture.. Somehow we’ve decided as a culture that agriculture should be subsidized through the death of animals and this agency is particularly destructive because it robs the public of wildlife and doesn’t even do that much good.†(Jay Tutchton, Environmental law clinic, University of Denver School of Law)
They have the authority to trap, poison, shoot and aerial gun animals, done mainly for the livestock industry. Because Wildlife Services keeps a low profile, most people have no idea their tax dollars are paying a federal agency to kill off predators and other wildlife to “protect ranching.â€
If you’ve ever wondered, as I have, what’s happened to all the foxes, raccoons, beavers and coyotes, just to name a few, well now you know. A good many of them are being blown away each year by this agency. And most of us, have absolutely nothing to say about it. Does that seem right to you?
The statistics are shocking:
Wildlife Services killed 1456 gray wolves nationally from 2004 to 2008. That’s an average of 364 dead wolves per year. They even killed 9 Mexican Gray wolves in that same time period, one of the most endangered animals in the US, they only number 52 wolves.
“The governments own figures again show that mammalian carnivores kill very few livestock (0.18%) Of the 104.5 million cattle that were produced in 2005, 190,000 (or 0.18%) died as the result of predation from coyotes, domestic dogs, and other carnivores (USDA, 2006). In comparison, livestock producers lost 3.9 million head of cattle (3.69%) to all sorts of maladies, weather, or theft, respiratory problems, digestive problems, calving, unknown, other, disease, lameness, metabolic problems, poison (USDA, 2006)
Coyotes were the primary cattle predators — they killed 97,000 cattle in 2005, followed by domestic dogs — which killed 21,900 cattle. Wolves killed remarkably few cattle, 4,400 head, as did the felids (USDA, 2006)†link
So let’s get this straight. DOMESTIC DOGS killed more cattle than wolves!. That’s from the USDA, 2006 numbers. Coyotes, who killed the most cattle, 97,000, which still is a very small percentage, paid dearly with their lives. 696,936 coyotes were eliminated by Wildlife Services between 2004-2008.
Truth really does put everything in perspective and when you see how little damage wolves really do compared to other factors, it’s mind-boggling that we’re having organized wolf hunts, management plans, aerial gunning, poisoning, denning and trapping of wolves with whole federal and state agencies devoted to making sure the wolf population doesn’t get any bigger. You have to ask yourself why? Can you guess? It’s called irrational fear, intolerance of another species and appalling arrogance.
“Wolves killed in Polaris, Montana in 2004 for the purposes of livestock protection. Wildlife Services agents, school children, and teacher pose with dead wolves.â€
UDATE: May 2, 2012
In light of the Sacramento Bee’s explosive expose on Wildlife Services and the lawsuit filed against the agency by WildEarth Guardians, I felt it would be important to re-post this 2009 piece.
Remember this is a repost, reflecting what was happening in 2009, so a few of the links are outdated but Wildlife Services hasn’t changed, they’re still doing what they’ve been doing for decades, killing wildlife.
===
October 19, 2009
Who is Wildlife Services? If you asked the majority of Americans, they probably couldn’t tell you. It was formerly known as “Animal Damage Control (ADC)â€. The agency is the extermination arm of the Department of Agriculture.
“It’s just a subsidy to agriculture.. Somehow we’ve decided as a culture that agriculture should be subsidized through the death of animals and this agency is particularly destructive because it robs the public of wildlife and doesn’t even do that much good.†(Jay Tutchton, Environmental law clinic, University of Denver School of Law)
They have the authority to trap, poison, shoot and aerial gun animals, done mainly for the livestock industry. Because Wildlife Services keeps a low profile, most people have no idea their tax dollars are paying a federal agency to kill off predators and other wildlife to “protect ranching.â€
If you’ve ever wondered, as I have, what’s happened to all the foxes, raccoons, beavers and coyotes, just to name a few, well now you know. A good many of them are being blown away each year by this agency. And most of us, have absolutely nothing to say about it. Does that seem right to you?
The statistics are shocking:
Wildlife Services killed 1456 gray wolves nationally from 2004 to 2008. That’s an average of 364 dead wolves per year. They even killed 9 Mexican Gray wolves in that same time period, one of the most endangered animals in the US, they only number 52 wolves.
“The governments own figures again show that mammalian carnivores kill very few livestock (0.18%) Of the 104.5 million cattle that were produced in 2005, 190,000 (or 0.18%) died as the result of predation from coyotes, domestic dogs, and other carnivores (USDA, 2006). In comparison, livestock producers lost 3.9 million head of cattle (3.69%) to all sorts of maladies, weather, or theft, respiratory problems, digestive problems, calving, unknown, other, disease, lameness, metabolic problems, poison (USDA, 2006)
Coyotes were the primary cattle predators — they killed 97,000 cattle in 2005, followed by domestic dogs — which killed 21,900 cattle. Wolves killed remarkably few cattle, 4,400 head, as did the felids (USDA, 2006)†link
So let’s get this straight. DOMESTIC DOGS killed more cattle than wolves!. That’s from the USDA, 2006 numbers. Coyotes, who killed the most cattle, 97,000, which still is a very small percentage, paid dearly with their lives. 696,936 coyotes were eliminated by Wildlife Services between 2004-2008.
Truth really does put everything in perspective and when you see how little damage wolves really do compared to other factors, it’s mind-boggling that we’re having organized wolf hunts, management plans, aerial gunning, poisoning, denning and trapping of wolves with whole federal and state agencies devoted to making sure the wolf population doesn’t get any bigger. You have to ask yourself why? Can you guess? It’s called irrational fear, intolerance of another species and appalling arrogance.
“Wolves killed in Polaris, Montana in 2004 for the purposes of livestock protection. Wildlife Services agents, school children, and teacher pose with dead wolves.â€