Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion The killing agency

The killing agency: Wildlife Services' brutal methods leave a trail of animal death


http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/28/4450678/the-killing-agency-wildlife-services.html

I never heard of this. Very disturbing.

I don't think I will ever cease to be dumbfounded and pissed off by the periodic revelations of shadowy government operations --- and I'm neither paranoid nor a conspiracy theorist. I'm including the new surprise finding of California State Parks's budget surplus while they've been threatening to close parks for a couple of years in this category.

Most disturbing and stunning.

Only a guess, but wouldn't it cost less to reimburse the ranchers for lost head of cattle than it would be to fund such an agency that, wantonly or not, messes with the balance of nature in the animal part of the overall ecosystem?

CaT

Unfortunately what is included in this article is about 1% of the full story. Most of the information was taken from a WS employee that was fired a few years ago, or only a small portion of the information is provided in the article. No, it would not cost less to refund ranchers and livestock owners, aquaculture facilities, home owners... A large portion of the work WS performs is on airports for habitat and wildlife management to reduce bird strikes. They are also involved in protection of endangered species (Sierra big horn sheep, snowy plover, CA least tern, Clapper Rail...)all over California and other parts of the USA, but the press very rarely disusses that work. Over 90% of the work has nothing to do with actually removing an animal, most of it is concentrated on habitat management, prevention, and educating property owners how to reduce wildlife conflicts. People don't seem to mind the removal of rats, skunks, raccoons in atticks, bears breaking into homes, coyotes killing pets (and people a couple times).

I apologize for the political gibberish, this webpage is not the place for it to occur.

rpm, what is the source of your information?

I'm the type of person who likes to weigh the various information sources for their various reliabilities and points of view, and make up my own mind, rather than have others interpret for me.

You may have already guessed, but I work for that agency. We take alot of heat for the work we do. That is perfectly acceptable and I understand people don't like the idea of animals dying. Yes, we do kill animals, but that solution is a last resort and determined by the property owner/manager if it is biologically sound. Alot of our effort and resources is spent on habitat mangement and non-lethal methods (fencing, scaring devices...) Historically livestock and agriculture protection was our primary purpose. But, the last twenty years our agency has expanded and changed because human/wildlife conflicts have increased or there is a greater demand by the public for assistance.

Depending on the state or region our program has shifted to more urban areas, work on airports, protection of threatend or endangered species, invasive species in the Pacific Islands and Florida, and wildlife disease control and monitoring.

A good location to find information is our website. I can't recall the exact page, but you can enter "USDA Wildlife Services" and you will get to the page. There will be a link for programs in different states on the side of the page. There are also links to tables on all the data we collect for our work (property damage, management methods...)

There are two sides to every story and I don't to change anybody's opinion, but what is printed in the paper is sometimes intended to get attention rather than give information in the full and proper context.

Managing ecosystems: a half a million domestic cats running around attracting coyotes whilst those same cats are killing songbirds does not help the situation here in rural suburbia; however, this irresponsibility is rarely mentioned in articles that either whine about the "pesky" coyotes OR lambast those who are called apon to "deal" with the problem.

Is this an example of how your agency works with the local communities? 2 weeks ago coyotes were killed in Davis and the city wildlife specialist was not even contacted. Killing is always the first option and very little science is involved. Remove a predator like a coyote and then enjoy a rabbit, vole and rat explosion. Then you get to use even more chemicals and traps that kill beyond the target species. This isn't the 1940's anymore. Get some biologists on staff and start doing some intelligent wildlife management.

http://davisvanguard.org/index.php?optio...s&Itemid=86