A Federal Agency's Alarming War On Wildlife
Meet the Obscure Federal Agency that Kills Over 1 Million Wild Animals Every Year
It’s been a while since my last investigative piece so lets roll back the curtain on a nearly unchecked wildlife program that uses your tax dollars to do grim favors for special interests.
The Untold Story of a Federal Agency's Wildlife War
In the spotlight today is Wildlife Services, a division of the USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), tasked with a complex mission that involves managing wildlife populations to protect agriculture, natural resources, property and health and safety.
Now before I dive into the dark underbelly of this long-running federal program let’s get one thing straight: the fight against invasive species is serious and important. Species like feral hogs, nutria, European starlings, brown tree snakes, and many others pose real threats to our ecosystems, and efforts to control these invaders are imperative to the health of our natural habitats. In this arena, Wildlife Services plays a vital and commendable role.
Staggering Numbers
In 2022, Wildlife Services killed over 1.85 million animals. While most of these were invasive species, a staggering portion of this death toll – over 380,000 were native animals. The data speaks volumes. Take, for example, the killing of 213 gray wolves, a symbol of the wild that once roamed free across the entire country, reduced to a line item in a statistical report. Coyotes, bobcats, black bears, mountain lions, and even grizzly bears weren't spared, with thousands of these native predators eliminated in a bid to protect livestock and agriculture.
And it's not just land roaming predators. Beavers, with their impressive water management skills, and alligators, part of the wetland's intricate web of life, also found themselves on the receiving end of this program’s ghoulish mandate. Over 26,000 beavers were killed last year alone by Wildlife Services. That’s more than the entire seating capacity of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium.
Grisly Tactics and Unintended Victims
The methods employed — from leg-hold traps to cyanide bombs — are as controversial as the program itself. These tools don't discriminate, often catching non-target species in their grasp, with deadly consequences. The use of M-44 cyanide devices, in particular, has been a point of contention, with accidents harming not just unintended wildlife but pets and even humans.
Who Really Benefits Here?
Of course in America if you really want to know what’s going on - just look for the profit motive. While Wildlife Services does indeed provide valuable services managing invasive species and even some native species that pose a physical risk to people, we need to take a step back and look at their parent agency. Once you realize this shady program operates within an agency whose logo should appear in the dictionary definition of regulatory capture you can see how we’ve gotten here.
It’s almost poetically ironic that the very agency charged with guarding the U.S. against invasive species exterminates hundreds of thousands of native animals annually, many of them lost in the name of safeguarding cattle—which themselves are an invasive species. Meanwhile, the bison, our noble national mammal (that also offers superior meat), continues to be vilified by ranchers and confined like zoo exhibits to a handful of parks while cattle graze freely throughout our public lands with their owners paying pennies on the dollar for the privilege.
This isn't a simple story of man versus nature; it's a complex narrative of choices, consequences, and a regulatory framework that seems skewed towards industrial interests over ecological integrity. The killing of native animals to protect non-native livestock isn't just ironic; it's a serious misstep in our stewardship of the natural world that has real consequences.
Sunshine on a Shadowy Program
Recent efforts to reign in some of Wildlife Services more reprehensible tactics have made serious strides. Late last year the BLM announced it was banning the use of cyanide bombs on public lands it manages. And just a few days ago a group of congressmen involved with the BLM decision announced they’re calling on the Forest Service to follow suit with a ban of their own. My hope is these recent developments signal a shift in our approach to wildlife management, emphasizing ethics and conservation over destruction in the name of industry.
And don’t get me wrong, the U.S. agricultural industry is vitally important to our national economy and our ability to project strength at home and abroad. We all benefit immensely from the farms that keep our fridges and pantry’s stocked with food and our restaurants humming. It’s an industry that rightly deserves looking out for. But it’s painfully obvious that we need to be doing a lot more to ensure that we’re balancing our interests correctly.
“The ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
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My Closing Thoughts
That’s all I have for today. I hope you’ll light up the comments and share your thoughts. I’m particularly excited to see if anyone skipped the last paragraph and incorrectly took this as an attack on agriculture – though I think I’m mostly hoping for an unfounded insinuation that I’m vegan or that I want to take away hamburgers. Until next time!
– Jim
I read about a kid in Idaho that triggered one of those cyanide devices on a walk with his dog. Terrible. Some really solid reporting here. Thanks for sharing.