Article by Wendy Keefover-Ring
The U.S. government uses planes and helicopters to wage war on wild predators. The program costs millions, kills its agents, risks the public's safety and exacts a huge ecological toll that courses through the trophic layers. But it's nothing new.
Since 1885, the federal government has been involved in wildlife-killing campaigns designed to protect livestock growers. The only thing that changed was the agency's name. In 1885, the Office of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy began testing poisons for rodents and predators.
In the 1930s, wildlife activist Rosalie Edge excoriated the Bureau of Biological Survey for being, well, unbiological. She dubbed the agency ìthe United States Bureau of Destruction and Extermination.î She described poisoning lines, in one case, 700 miles long. The Bureau set up ìpoisoning stationsî and distributed poison baits, across the West, intended for bothersome predators and rodents.
In 1931, Congress passed the Animal Damage Control Act. It mandated the Secretary of Agriculture to ìpromulgate the best methods of eradication, suppression, or bringing under control on national forests and other areas of public domain as well as . . . privately owned lands of mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, prairie dogs, gophers . . . for the protection of stock and other domestic animals through the suppression . . . predatory or other wild animals; and to conduct campaigns for the destruction or control of such animals.î
As a result of this legislation, wolves and grizzlies were extirpated in the lower 48 states and other wildlife became jeopardized, including prairie dogs. Still, the agency persisted and metamorphed. The1974 nomenclature, Animal Damage Control, was replaced in 1997 with the satirical title, Wildlife Services.
Killing tactics not only failed to wipe out coyotes, but caused them to increase their range across the North American continent. Coyotes replaced less human-adapted carnivores: wolves, grizzlies and jaguars. Wildlife Services 115 year-old failed mission to extirpate coyotes is a lesson they refuse to learn.
Rather than asking ranchers to take responsibility for their livestock and use non-lethal controls such as night penning and guard animals, Wildlife Services relies on a Pentagonesque ìstar warsî solution. Poisons, traps and snares are passe. These federal cowboys now use airplanes and helicopters to shoot their high caliber guns. The war on wildlife has moved to the skies. But itís a war with a nasty backlash.
June 1, 2000 marked the latest Wildlife Services aerial gunning plane crash. The pilot injured his back and the gunner broke his nose. The Associated Press quoted Wildlife Services Nevada State Director Bob Beachís reaction to the accident. He claimed that aerial gunning, ìis a little more dangerous than office work.î
Sinapu, a Boulder-based carnivore advocacy group, confirmed Director Beachís statement. The June 1st crash marks the 17th accident by Wildlife Services in the past dozen years. Since 1989, 21 people have been injured in aerial gunning accidents, and since 1996, seven have died.
Not only is Wildlife Services injuring and killing their agents, but they also put the publicís safety in danger. In Downieville, California a couple were fired upon. According to sheriffís records, Wildlife Services made four passes around the couple while bullets sprayed down within fifty yards of them on their private property.
Predator control, particularly aerial gunning is a giant fiscal boondoggle. According to Predator Conservation Alliance of Bozeman, in 1998, Wildlife Services killed nearly 100,000 carnivores (by a variety of techniques) using $10 million in tax dollars. We surmise that a large potion of the budget is realized through the aerial gunning program.
Each flight costs hundreds of dollars and when accidents occur, more funds are expended to finance workersí compensation claims, injury suits, disability or death gratuities, social security, or medical care costs. Moreover, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration conduct crash investigations and clean up. Not only expensive, the program fails to accomplish its goal: protect livestock. The majority of predators never prey on domestic livestock. In 1995, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) found that for cattle and calf deaths, coyotes caused 1.6% of all deaths and that predators overall only caused 2.7% of cattle and calf deaths. Instead, other causes of death were far greater: digestive problems (19.7%), respiratory problems (27.5%), unknown causes (15.2%) birthing (14.8%), weather (9.5%), other (9.1), poison (1.1) and theft (.4%). Given these stats, Wildlife Services ought to focus more on changing the weather--it would provide more rancher satisfaction.
The impacts to sheep and lambs are proportionally greater, but still minor when considered wholly. The NASS reported in January that there are 7.03 million sheep being produced in the United States. In May, NASS found that 742,900 sheep were killed by ìall causes" and 273,000 were killed by predators. The sheep by predators accounts for 3.9% of the total number of sheep in America--hardly a crisis.
To end aerial gunning, Western Wildlife Conservancy joined forces with Sinapu and 18 other environmental and animal rights groups, attorneys and biologists. The coalition targeted the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). We wrote a demand letter requesting that BLM stop aerial gunning on its holdings in Colorado. As a result, the State Director Ann Morgan convened an inter-agency task force to review the expediency of aerial gunning.
After the task force reported, Director Morgan sent mandates to her field staff about when and where aerial gunning can take place. While Wildlife Services can no longer aerial gun on the Colorado BLM in areas that may endanger people, sensitive species, or protected habitats, and while we appreciate the hard work of Ann Morgan and her staff, the coalition remains unsatisfied. Citizens have no opportunity to monitor what events actually occur on public lands.
Michael Worthen, Western Regional Director of Wildlife Services, explained that itís their policy to exclude the public from their ìannual planning meetingsîóthat is, meetings that take place between Wildlife Services the Forest Service and the BLM. But only a certain public is excluded. Wildlife Damage Review of Tucson has proof of rancher participation at these ìclosedî public meetings.
The U.S. government uses planes and helicopters to wage war on wild predators. The program costs millions, kills its agents, risks the publicís safety and exacts a huge ecological toll that courses through the trophic layers. But itís nothing newóexcept this time, weíre gonna stop them.
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