Lawsuit filed to stop feds’ wildlife damage control program
By Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee
The federal government’s wildlife damage control program is based on outdated science and indiscriminate tools that kill many non-target animals, including protected species, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by WildEarth Guardians, a Colorado-based environmental group.
The focus of the lawsuit is a little-known arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called Wildlife Services that has long specialized in killing animals that are deemed to pose a threat to agriculture, the public and – more recently – the environment.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, asks that the agency’s activities be halted until it prepares a new, more comprehensive environmental impact statement. The suit also calls for a halt to its aerial gunning of predators in federally designated wilderness areas.
“It’s high time for the federal court to take a hard look at Wildlife Services’ slaughter of the nation’s wildlife on public and private land with our tax dollars,” said Wendy Keefover, director of carnivore protection for the group.