Petition Seeks to Reform Secretive Federal Agency That Kills Millions of Wild Animals

The Center for Biological Diversity and allies petitioned the Obama administration today to reform the federal wildlife-killing agency known as “Wildlife Services,” which kills nearly 1.5 million coyotes, bears, otters, foxes, birds and other animals each year without any requirement to disclose its activities to the public. The secretive killing — which includes aerial gunning, traps and exploding poison caps — has gone on for decades with little public oversight or rules requiring the use of the best available science or techniques to reduce the deaths of nontarget animals. Today’s petition was filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees Wildlife Services. The petition calls for the agency to:

Develop regulations to ensure use of the best science when determining whether action should be taken against animals;

Avoid killing nontarget animals, including endangered species;

Ensure ethical treatment of targeted animals and exhaustion of nonlethal means; and

Require release of reliable information to the public about the animals it kills.

A response to the petition is required by law; any decision is subject to review by the courts...more