URGENT: Help Stop the Federal Wolf Killing Plan

Pups like this could be killed in their dens with poisonous gas. The deadline for comments is August 31st! Please take action today.

Immediate, please sign:
Help Stop the Federal Wolf Killing Plan

***Please note that this is open only to US friends.

From:
Defenders of Wildlife
The federal Wildlife Services agency (a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) is the primary wolf-killer in the United States — and now want to expand their wolf-killing operations. They plan to work with Idaho officials to eliminate up to 80 percent of the wolves in north-central Idaho by land and from the air.

Their plan also includes killing entire packs — including gassing helpless wolf pups in their dens — and surgically sterilizing alpha wolf pairs.

This unacceptable killing plan cannot be allowed to go forward — especially since wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies regained protections under the Endangered Species Act.

Please take action now to speak out against the Wildlife Services plan to expand their wolf-killing role in Idaho.

Idaho officials are claiming that wolves are the major cause of elk declines in parts of the state. But in 23 of the 29 elk management zones, populations of these animals are at or above population targets — many of the areas experiencing declines in elk numbers contain no wolves. And the Clearwater National Forest was experiencing steep declines in elk numbers by 1988 — long before wolves returned to the area.

MESSAGE TEXT:

As a supporter of Defenders of Wildlife and a citizen concerned about the long-term recovery of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region, I am writing today to speak out against Wildlife Services’ outrageous plans to drastically expand the types of lethal methods used to kill federally protected wolves.

The latest plan outlined in Wildlife Services’ Draft Environmental Assessment Gray Wolf Damage Management in Idaho discards science-based management and harkens back to the days of the agency’s wholesale slaughter of wolves and other native predators.

The plan calls for killing off entire packs by tracking and shooting them from the air, gassing pups in their dens and even calls for alpha wolf pairs to be surgically sterilized.

The gassing of pups in their dens and sterilization are inappropriate for a species listed under the Endangered Species Act. These methods do not represent responsible wildlife management for the 21st century. In addition, the use of gas is not even currently legal and likely would not be approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Environmental Protection Agency.

The wolf-killing methods outlined in the Environmental Assessment are inappropriate and conflict with Wildlife Services’ mission to “create a balance that allows people and wildlife to coexist peacefully.”

Wolves were reintroduced into the northern Rockies to fulfill their ecological role as part of nature. Their return to their historic range has resulted in a more balanced landscape resulting in an increase in species diversity, healthy watersheds, and stronger elk herds. Killing wolves for doing what they naturally do — namely preying on elk — is scientifically indefensible.

Idaho officials are claiming that wolves are the major cause of elk declines in parts of the state. But in 23 of the 29 elk management zones, populations of these animals are at or above population targets — many of the areas experiencing declines in elk numbers contain no wolves. And the Clearwater National Forest was experiencing steep declines in elk numbers by 1988 — long before wolves returned to the area.

Moreover, the use of predator control to prevent livestock loss is merely a temporary solution. New wolves move into territory vacated by the killed wolves, often to continue the cycle of livestock predation unless the root cause is addressed.

I don’t want my tax dollars to be used to kill native wildlife under this misguided and archaic scheme. Wildlife Services should instead reduce wildlife conflicts and encourage peaceful coexistence with predators by using and promoting nonlethal tools and best management practices to preemptively reduce livestock loss.

Wolves remain protected under the Endangered Species Act, but the Environmental Assessment analyzing this proposal assumes they would be delisted. Wildlife Services must go back and revise the EA based on the ESA protections and do a complete Environmental Impact Statement of predator control in the Northern Rockies region — not just on wolf control — on a state by state basis.

Thank you for considering my comments on this important matter.