WYOMING – A federal agency responsible for killing millions of wild animals in western US states including Idaho and Wyoming was dealt a reprimanding blow recently by a US District Judge.
Chief District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sided with wildlife advocates this week in agreement with a lawsuit brought in May 2017 by Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, and Predator Defense against Wildlife Services—a somewhat clandestine division of the Department of Agriculture tasked with killing or removing predators, usually at the behest of ranchers.
In the 24-page ruling [US District Court opinion on Wildlife Services] issued June 22, Judge Winmill cited a lack of science and data backing up Wildlife Services extermination programs, saying the agency operates in an “arbitrary and capricious manner.”
“In conclusion, the lack of reliable data and the unconvincing responses to the serious concerns of agencies with long experience and expertise in the very area Wildlife Services sought to expand its operations into, demonstrates that the expanded [predator damage management] program is controversial, and its environmental impacts highly uncertain, so that an EIS is required under NEPA,” Winmill stated.
Wildlife Services has been under fire by wildlife advocacy groups for years, as well as members of Congress who say the agency works in secret with too little oversight.
Advocacy groups applauded the ruling.
Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians, stated, “Indiscriminately killing native carnivores does not achieve any of Wildlife Services’ stated goals. The next logical step is for Wildlife Services to pull its proverbial head out of the sand, accept the best available science and adopt a nonlethal coexistence mandate.”
