Housed within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is a taxpayer-funded program called “Wildlife Services,” which, in spite of its name, does not serve wildlife. Instead, it’s the federal government’s multimillion-dollar program that kills tens of thousands of native animals annually, much of it at the request of the livestock industry.
In 2023 alone, Wildlife Services killed 375,000 native animals—including coyotes, wolves, grizzly bears, and mountain lions—across the country by various brutal means, including snares, traps, chemical poisons, and aerial gunning. Some of the slaughter even took place in Wilderness areas.
Wildlife Services has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) “evaluating alternatives to address predator damage management” in Idaho. While the proposed action does prohibit aerial gunning in Wilderness, aerial gunning of wildlife in Wilderness Study Areas would continue. Plus, the proposal would allow Wildlife Services to continue killing coyotes, wolves, and grizzly bears in Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas through trapping, snaring, chasing by dogs, and calling.
Wilderness Watch is urging Wildlife Services to stop killing wildlife in all Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas in Idaho. Not only that, but all Wildlife Services program activity in Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas in Idaho should be nonlethal and meet the letter and intent of the Wilderness Act. Additionally, the proposed prohibition on aerial gunning in Wilderness should be extended to all lands, including Wilderness Study Areas.
Photo: Coyote by Sam Parks
