End the #WarOnWildlife

Funding, Expenditures and Transparency - WildEarth Guardians

www.wildearthguardians.org

Figures lie and liars figure." Budget kills 2012. Wildlife Services came under fire in April and May 2012.

Please join our friends at 
WildEarth Guardians @wildearthguard 
by taking action to Defund Wildlife Services
http://tinyurl.com/qgkeds7
Thank you

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April 16. 2014
Demand an End to Wildife Slaughter Funded By Your Tax Dollars

Dear Guardian, 
It’s tax day: do you know where your money is going?

You may be shocked to learn that a secretive federal program is pocketing taxpayer money and using it to wage a war on wildlife.

“Wildlife Services” exterminates literally millions of native animals every year. The program is cruel, unscientific and wasteful, and can’t even account for where its money goes.[1]

We want safe havens for wildlife to thrive, not taxpayer-funded massacres on our public lands. Contact your congressional representatives and ask them to make sure your tax money does not fund this destructive, out-of-control program. Defund Wildlife Services.

The program uses dangerous and wasteful methods including traps, poisons, and aerial gunning to slaughter a host of native species, from 561 black bears and 501 wolves to 12,561 black-tailed prairie dogs killed in 2012.[2] Their crimes? Doing what comes naturally.

The government spent $58 million to kill those animals; with that money it could pay the yearly salaries of 850 elementary school teachers or police officers, provide 7,400 students with a year’s worth of university scholarships, assist 12,000 people who need low-income healthcare for a year, provide a year of 100% renewable solar energy for 45,500 households, or buy disaster preparedness kits for 470,000 families of four.[3]

It’s time to axe the death tax; demand action today from your congressional representatives.

Taylor Jones

Endangered Species Advocate

WildEarth Guardians

tjones@wildearthguardians.org

[1] See the independent audit from APHIS Program Accountability and Assessment here http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/May2012-APHIS-PAA-Audit-medres.pdf

[2] Wildlife Services releases data a year behind; 2012 is the most recent fiscal year for which we could get numbers.

[3] [http://nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs] except for the disaster kits, which are priced from EssentialPacks http://www.essentialpacks.com/HOMEBASE-Emergency-Kit-4-Person-392 

Federal funding for Wildlife Services is the combined Federal and Federal Cooperative funding from 2012, the most recent available funding document http://tinyurl.com/kmz7v9h

photo credits: wolf:Sam Parks; red-winged blackbird: Andrea Westmoreland/Flickr; coyotes: Sam Parks; river otter: Sam Parks; prairie dog: Rich Reading.

LAWSUIT INITIATED TO PROTECT THREATENED LYNX 
FROM IDAHO TRAPPING

Reposted from Wolf Conservation Center

http://nywolf.org/home?p=9504

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Maggie

Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and Friends of the Clearwater initiated a lawsuit today against the Governor “Butch” Otter of Idaho and other state officials to halt trapping that illegally kills one of the rarest cats in the United States, the Canada lynx.

According to Idaho Fish and Game, 
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis/cwcs/pdf/Canada%20Lynx.pdf the total population of Canada Lynx in the state is thought to be less than 100 and “may be especially susceptible to trapping, which has been a significant source of mortality.”

Could the presence of this threatened kitty help safeguard other critters from this indiscriminate and barbaric hunting practice in Idaho?

Read more from The Wildlife News.

LAWSUIT LAUNCHED TO PROTECT RARE LYNX FROM TRAPS IN IDAHO

Canada lynx by Keith Williams
INCREASE IN STATE-PERMITTED FUR TRAPPING LEADS TO ILLEGAL TRAPPING OF WILD CAT

by KEN COLE on APRIL 7, 2014 · 52 COMMENTS · in ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, LAWSUIT, LYNX, PRESS RELEASE, TRAPPING, WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT, WILDCATS

http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2014/04/07/lawsuit-launched-to-protect-rare-lynx-from-traps-in-idaho/

BOISE, Idaho— Three conservation groups initiated a lawsuit today against the Governor of Idaho and other state officials to halt trapping that illegally kills one of the rarest cats in the United States, the Canada lynx. The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, and Friends of the Clearwater notified Gov. Butch Otter, the director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and members of the state Fish and Game Commission of the Endangered Species Act violations in permitting trapping that leads to incidental killing of lynx.

The Canada lynx is a threatened species that numbers as few as 100 animals in the state of Idaho, where the rare animals are under unprecedented threat from recreational trapping. Although the intentional trapping of lynx is not permitted under Idaho law, with increases in trapping licenses and fur prices, especially for bobcat, at least three lynx have been unintentionally trapped by bobcat trappers in just the last two years. Under the Endangered Species Act, trapping of lynx, even if released alive, is illegal. Any agency permitting such trapping is liable under the Endangered Species Act.

“Trapping permitted by the state of Idaho is directly helping to push these rare, beautiful animals toward extinction,” said Louisa Wilcox, Northern Rockies representative of the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is a clear violation of the Endangered Species Act.”

The Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to kill, trap, harm or harass any endangered or threatened species. A government agency that permits such activity is also liable. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game can develop a conservation plan with measures to avoid and reduce incidental trapping of lynx and receive an incidental take permit. The plan, which would require approval by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, includes restrictions on conibear, body-crushing traps and snares, reporting requirements, monitoring, and a daily trap check requirement throughout lynx habitat.

Last year the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed more than 26 million acres of critical habitat across six states for the Canadian lynx, which faces ongoing threats from habitat destruction and reduced snowpacks from climate change.

“The lynx is a true Idaho mountain icon, and a healthy Idaho population is critical not just to lynx survival here, but across the western United States,” said Ken Cole of Western Watersheds Project. “Idaho is the crossroads for lynx, allowing a healthy mixing between Rockies and Canadian populations. If we lose the lynx in Idaho, the whole western U.S. population is at risk.”

“If trapping was the only problem, lynx might be able to handle it,” said Gary Macfarlane of Friends of the Clearwater. “But with the low snowpacks and early melting that we are seeing from global warming, lynx are facing a deadly one-two punch. If we don’t act now, these marvelous creatures might not even inhabit the Idaho of our children and grandchildren’s generations.”

Lynx are medium-sized, long-legged cats, ranging up to 24 pounds. They are generally nocturnal and well-adapted to hunting snowshoe hare at high elevations.

If the Idaho Department of Fish and Game does not address the violations outlined in today’s notice of intent to sue, a federal lawsuit can be filed as soon as 60 days. The notice of intent to sue can be read here.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 675,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Western Watersheds Project is a non-profit conservation group founded in 1993 with 1400 members whose mission is to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives and litigation.
http://www.westernwatersheds.org/

Friends of the Clearwater is an Idaho-based nonprofit conservation organization that works to protect the wildness and biodiversity of the public wildlands, wildlife, and waters of Idaho’s Clearwater Basin.
http://www.friendsoftheclearwater.org/

The WildlifeNews

http://www.thewildlifenews.com

If the Idaho Department of Fish and Game does not address the violations outlined in today’s notice of intent to sue, a federal lawsuit can be filed as soon as 60 days.
The notice of intent to sue here.
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Idaho-Trapping-NOI-FINAL.pdf

This entry was posted in Idaho and tagged canada lynx, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Clearwater, Idaho, Trapping, Western Watersheds Project. Bookmark the permalink.

Reposted from Wolf Conservation Center

http://nywolf.org/home?p=9504