Help ensure continued protections for wolves across the lower-48 states! You can make a difference by writing to Obama administration officials to urge them not to drop federal protections for wolves across much of the United States.
Wolves In The Lower-48 States Need Your Help. Protect wolves from brutal hunting, trapping, and poisoning!
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed lifting federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across nearly the entire lower-48 states. This would be a disastrous setback for gray wolf recovery in the United States.
The recovery of gray wolves is an American success story, from their reintroduction in the northern Rocky Mountains to their comeback in the western Great Lakes states. But there are few, if any, gray wolves in the vast majority of their former range. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes gray wolf federal protections, wolves in the Pacific Northwest, California, the southern Rocky Mountains, and the Northeast will face even more difficult odds than they do already.
It is critical that the administration not proceed with a blanket national delisting of the gray wolf, when wolves are still missing across so much of the U.S. landscape.
Urge President Obama and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell to maintain protections for gray wolves in the lower-48 states.
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We’re Calling on the Service to Do More For Red Wolves: Represented by Southern Environmental Law Center, Defenders of Wildlife, The Red Wolf Coalition and Animal Welfare Institute put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on notice for failing to protect red wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally authorized the killing of a critically endangered female red wolf within the Red Wolf Recovery Area in eastern North Carolina. In June, USFWS announced that it had authorized the kill and would end red wolf reintroductions, pending further study.
The population has declined disastrously by as much as half of what it was only a year ago. In response, Defenders’ Jason Rylander said: ´“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs to step up work to help this species get back on the road to recovery, not stop releasing wolves. Red wolves are endangered because they need protection and effective management to thrive. Allowing the killing of a breeding female wolf is the exact opposite of managing red wolves for recovery.” We’ll keep you updated here as we have more information.
Wildlife Services' Wildlife Killing Program Dealt Blow By Federal Appeals Court
Ninth Circuit Rules Program Can't Hide Behind 20 Year Old Analysis
San Francisco — Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Wildlife Services’, the federal wildlife killing program, reliance on a twenty year old analysis, which itself relies on forty year old science, is not immune from environmental review. The court held conservationists are injured by the program’s wildlife killing activities and can challenge them in court.
“For decades Wildlife Services has operated in the shadows as though it were above the law,” said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. “It is high time the true environmental costs of this rogue program’s cruel wildlife killing activities are exposed.”
In 2014, Wildlife Services killed over two million native animals using taxpayer dollars. The program, under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), uses a variety of cruel and inhumane tactics to kill wildlife including trapping, aerial gunning and poisoning. Many of these methods cannot discriminate amongst species; meaning non-target animals are at serious risk. Both non-target wildlife species and domestic companion animals have fallen victim to Wildlife Services’ devices.
In 2012, WildEarth Guardians challenged Wildlife Services’ refusal to analyze the impacts of its wildlife killing activities in Nevada as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The program instead insisted that a 1994 Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) was a sufficient analysis of its current activities, even though the PEIS relies on outdated and largely disproven “science” from the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast, NEPA review is designed to ensure all environmental impacts are analyzed and that the public has an opportunity to comment, and therefore influence, activities conducted using public funds.
In addition to Wildlife Services’ refusal to conduct an analysis taking into account current science, the program also argued its wildlife killing activities are immune from oversight because the State of Nevada might conduct similar activities if Wildlife Services were prohibited from doing so. Wildlife Services also claimed Guardians did not have “standing” to challenge the killing program. The court resoundingly rejected both arguments, finding that Guardians’ interests are injured by the program’s activities and that regardless of whether State of Nevada might engage in similar activities, Guardians can challenge Wildlife Services’ actions.
“Wildlife Services’ refusal to ensure its activities are based on the best available science further endangers already imperiled species, puts people and companion animals at risk, and wastes our taxpayer dollars,” said Cotton. “We call on Wildlife Services to immediately conduct a thorough analysis of the impacts of its activities, in Nevada and nationally.”
The Ninth Circuit’s ruling means the challenge will now proceed on the merits in federal district court in Nevada. Today’s ruling is available here.
