We need to cut this from the Government Budget!! WELFARE Ranching needs to be stopped cold! Why should we as a people, be responsible for paying for them to be successful ?? It is Driven by RANCHERS and their greed to Graze their ecosystem ruining cattle on Federal Lands!! If we dont get the grazing Federal Lands in Check, we will loose The land to Disease, destroyed streams, Rivers, pulluted from the Cattle
Wildlife Services—ever heard of it? No, not the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s something different. The Fish and Wildlife Service is part of the Department of the Interior, charged with enforcing wildlife laws, restoring habitat, and protecting fish, plants, and animals. Wildlife Services isn’t your state fish and game commission, either, which issues hunting and fishing licenses and manages local wildlife.
Wildlife Services is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it specializes in killing wild animals that threaten livestock—especially predators such as coyotes, wolves, and cougars. Outside the ranching community, few have heard of Wildlife Services.
Since 2000, the agency has killed at least two million mammals and 15 million birds. Although it’s main focus is predator control in the West, Wildlife Services also does things like bird control nationwide at airports to prevent crashes and feral pig control in the South.
Reporter Christopher Ketcham’s investigation, out this month inHarper’s Magazine, doesn’t mince words. The article is called “The Rogue Agency: A USDA program that tortures dogs and kills endangered species.” Ketcham exposes Wildlife Service’s use of poisoned bait, neck snares, leghold traps (which are banned in 80 countries), aerial gunning, and cyanide traps to go after animals that have attacked, or allegedly attacked, livestock grazing on public lands. Ketcham’s sources—former Wildlife Services trappers—told him they’ve witnessed or participated in these practices themselves and that they go on to this day.
Ranchers who graze their cattle and sheep on public lands say the service is vital, that they couldn’t sustain their operations without “taking care of the predation,” as rancher John Peavey in Idaho told Ketcham. If livestock get killed, ranchers are entitled to full compensation for the dead animal, Ketcham says, plus they can call in Wildlife Services to take out the predator.
But in most cases, the article notes, killing predators is not a scientifically sound wildlife control method. Killing an adult male mountain lion, for example, tends to lead to more attacks on livestock because that established male kept out the more aggressive teenagers. Studies have shown that this is true for wolves and black bears too. And as for coyotes—an ecologist found that where coyotes are culled, more pups in a given litter are likely to survive. That’s why even though Wildlife Services has killed nearly a million coyotes in the past decade, their numbers always bounce back.
Ketcham’s reporting tells of indiscriminate killing and inhumane methods—from family pets getting stuck in traps to the use of poison that causes a slow and painful death. Ketcham’s report also raises questions about how America’s public land is being managed, land that exists as much for the coyotes as for the ranchers, as much for the hikers and their dogs as for the fishermen and deer hunters.
It’s an issue that Ketcham, who’s currently a fellow at MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Program, has spent years investigating, and one he’s passionate about. He spoke to Wildlife Watch earlier this week.
The headline is pretty strong: “The Rogue Agency.” Can you explain?
Congressman Peter DeFazio would tell you that it’s unaccountable and secretive. He has tried to get information about its finances and its operations, and he couldn’t get it.