Washington Wildlife Department Sued

​worldanimalnews.com/breaking-center-for-bio-diversity-lawsuit-challenges-federal-killing-of-washingtons-bears-beavers-bobcats-and-other-wild-animals/

The U.S Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services is being sued for their continued cruel methods of trapping and killing Washington's native wildlife. The Center for Biological Diversity is seeking an updated environmental analysis of the wildlife services trapping, snaring, and killing of Washington's wild animals, vital to Washington's ecosystem.

“Washington’s bears and bobcats deserve better, so we’re suing Wildlife Services to force officials to consider alternatives to their mass-extermination programs,” said Sophia Ressler, a Center attorney in a statement.

The lawsuit aims to force the Wildlife Services to reevaluate their services and acknowledge that their methods and research are both outdated and inaccurate. The Wildlife Services is a multi-million dollar federal organization that continues to use outdated and recognizably cruel methods in dealing with wild animal conflicts. Methods like leg traps, strangulation snares, poison traps, and aerial gunning of wolves, coyotes, and bobcats, continue to be used at the request of the agriculture industry where most of these conflicts are taking place. 

The fact is, the agriculture industry has a very big hold on the government and their services and protecting the agriculture industry and the money generated from those industries is significantly more important to the government than protecting innocent, wild animals, some of which already face endangerment in the wild. Wolves for example, have dwindled down in numbers to the point of near extinction and yet protecting the agriculture industry is still seen as more lucrative and important than protecting an entire species from extinction. 

In fact, the wildlife services trapped and killed a whopping 1.5 million animals nationwide. In Washington alone, they slaughtered 6 black bears, 397 beavers, 376 coyotes, 429 marmots, 448 squirrels, and hundreds of other native animals. As mentioned, most of these animals are killed after conflicts with the agriculture industry. The problem is, these trapping and killing methods are indiscriminate and can lead to protected animals like wolves and eagles being killed. In fact, 300 pocket gophers were also killed last year putting the 4 species of endangered pocket gophers further at risk.

The analysis' for killing predators and aquatic animals are over a decade old and this lawsuit aims to force the Wildlife Services to re-evaluate their numbers and focus on non-lethal methods that are proven to be effective when dealing with agriculture conflicts. If we continue to allow this amount of wild animals to be killed every year, the ecosystem will ultimately suffer. With less predators, there will be an increase in plant based animals leading to further environmental damage that will undoubtedly lead to further slaughter. 

It's time for the Wildlife Services to think about the future survival of these animals and stop favouring the agriculture industry. 

HAPPY VEG