USDA stands by Wildlife Services’ killing of wolf pups

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, October 13, 2021

1. Conservation groups’ letter
2. USDA reply letter

SALEM — USDA has rejected environmentalists’ request that its Wildlife Services unit stop killing wolf pups on all public lands.

The agency’s hunters and trappers in some states are called upon to cull wolf packs when they attack livestock, costing ranchers thousands of dollars.

The environmentalists in an Aug. 4 letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said they were “dismayed” to learn Wildlife Services in Idaho was involved in killing wolf pups on public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service is a part of USDA.

They claimed killing pups is not biologically sound or socially acceptable. They also referred to an Idaho law that took effect July 1 to allow more wolf harvest and more methods of killing wolves.

Moreover, “wolf pups pose no threat to domestic livestock — in Idaho or anywhere in the Western United States,” they said in the letter.

The letter was from the International Wildlife Coexistence Network, Western Watersheds Project, Living with Wolves, Friends of the Clearwater, Predator Defense, WildEarth Guardians, conservation educator Christine Gertschen, and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Jenny Lester Moffitt, USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, said in an Oct. 1 response letter that it’s important that Wildlife Services managers have access to all available tools to effectively respond to depredation, and that lethal çontrol methods are necessary in some situations.

“As such, we cannot stop using any legal, humane management options, including the lethal removal of juvenile wolves,” she wrote.

Wildlife Services personnel work carefully to remove “only those animals necessary to protect livestock, other agricultural resources, natural resources, human health and safety, or property,” she said.

Conservation groups said their request was prompted by Wildlife Services killing pups in response to complaints from a public lands rancher. The rancher had experienced depredation more than a year earlier. They said Wildlife Services started pursuing the pack in May, when an agent killed three pups at the den, and that the agency killed five more pups over the next two months.

“The Biden administration’s response to our groups’ concerns was alarming, and the action that the administration stands behind is hideous,” Katie Bilodeau of Friends of the Clearwater said in a Center for Biological Diversity news release. Effective non-lethal deterrents to depredation are available, and “instead, federal and state officials chose the extreme and dubious alternative of killing wolf pups in hopes that the parents would leave.”

The Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board contracts with Wildlife Services to investigate possible depredations and to conduct control actions. The Department of Fish and Game must authorize lethal control actions after livestock are confirmed to be killed by wolves. The department also can authorize lethal control in areas that are known for wolf-livestock conflicts.