Call for End to USDA's Wildlife Killing Agency

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/17-6


Published on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 by the Associated Press
Call for End to USDA's Wildlife Killing Agency
by Scott Sonner

RENO, Nev. - Conservationists argue in a new report that U.S. taxpayers should stop subsidizing a $100 million program that kills more than 1 million wild animals annually, a program ranchers and farmers have defended for nearly a century as critical to protecting their livestock from predators.

Citing concerns about the economy and the potential for a fresh look at the decades-old controversy in the new Obama administration, 115 environmental groups signed onto a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to abolish the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services.

The American Sheep Industry Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and more than 70 other livestock production and state agriculture offices in 35 states countered with a letter citing more than $125 million in annual losses to the sheep, goat and cattle industry as a result of predation.

A report by conservationists released Tuesday documents significant increases in recent years in both the number of carnivores killed and the size of the agency's budget - $117 million in 2007, up 14 percent from the average from 2004-06.

"We ask Mr. Obama to get out his scalpel and protect the public's hard-earned dollars from this unscrupulous agency," said Wendy Keefover-Ring, director of carnivore protection for WildEarth Guardians based in Bozeman, Mont.

More than 90,000 of the 121,524 carnivores killed in 2007 were coyotes. But the trapping, poisoning and aerial gunning of the predators also is taking an increasing, unintended toll on other creatures, including 511 black bears and 340 endangered gray wolves in 2007, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press.
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[havocmom]

1. Plenty of coyotes in cities. No worry they are going extinct

I am a lover of the wolf, but that clever chap does cause some serious financial hits for food producers too. I can see both sides.

Bears seem to die when people try to be buddies with them and allow them to get over fear of us by showing what a good source of food we can provide. Well, that and developers pushing the limits of sanity by developing lands adjacent to where the bears live, creating more bear/human encounters.

I love the mountain lion, but again, mankind taught too many that being around us makes for easy feeding. Then, lions too lose much natural reserve and start interacting with people. Sadly, too many idiots go out looking for interaction and the lion ends up paying with its life.

Killing of wildlife generally due to stupidity on two legs. Get the point across to humans to behave and the USDA will have less complaints about predators. The problem is people. Sadly, we can't expect people to just go back where they came from.