Dear Guardian,
Did
you know there’s a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture whose mission
it is to employ federal agents to kill our wildlife on national forests, other
public lands and private lands as well?
And,
that they use your hard-earned tax dollars to wage this dirty little war?
Between 2004 and 2010, Wildlife Services spent nearly $1 billion to kill nearly
23 million animals, purportedly to protect agriculture and other private
interests.
We need your help to end the war on wildlife and this gross misappropriation of
our money. Tell Congress to axe the death tax.
Wildlife
Services agents employ an arsenal of helicopters, airplanes, guns, poisons,
traps, snares, and wildlife-chasing hounds to track and kill native species.
We believe it’s time to neutralize this agency and ban the poisons, silence the
guns, and pull up the traps. Join us and demand an end to misuse of your money,
and the slaughter of coyotes, wolves, cougars, and bears.
About half of Wildlife Services’ budget comes from federal tax dollars, while the
rest is provided by “cooperators” such as states, counties, municipalities, or
even industry groups like the American Sheep Industry Alliance.
WildEarth
Guardians has attempted to track Wildlife Services’ expenditures for years, and
even filed litigation against the agency in 2010 for its failure to disclose
its line-item budget expenditures. The agency claimed it was unable to detail its
expenses due to dysfunctional recordkeeping.
WildEarth
Guardians also specifically queried Wildlife Services on how much it spends on shooting
coyotes and wolves from helicopters and airplanes, a particularly egregious and
dangerous method of carnivore killing. The agency responded that: “Wildlife
Services does not have a managerial need for financial data at this finite
level.”
Good to know Wildlife Services does not have that need—but the American public
certainly does. Especially when all this killing has no real benefit—even to
the massive agricultural industry it purports to help.
Join us in calling upon Congress to zero out this destructive agency’s budget.
For the Wild,
Wendy Keefover
Carnivore Protection Director
WildEarth Guardians
wendy@wildearthguardians.org
