The federal government kills wildlife all the time and we’re paying for it. The program is called Wildlife Damage Management and its run by the unlikely Department of Agriculture (the USDA). Through the USDA agency, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a division called Wildlife Service has the mission to:
“… provide Federal leadership in managing problems caused by wildlife… an important public resource greatly valued by the American people… [W]ildlife is a highly dynamic and mobile resource that can damage agricultural and industrial resources, pose risks to human health and safety, and affect other natural resources. The Wildlife Service program… [helps] solve problems that occur when human activity and wildlife are in conflict …” (United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website, last modified August 24, 2010).
In carrying out its mission, Wildlife Service says one of its goals is to provide high quality wildlife damage management services and protect agriculture, wildlife and other natural resources using methods that are biologically, environmentally, and socially sound. Let’s see how they’re doing.
In 2009 (the most recent year information is available), Wildlife Service killed a total of 4,120,295 animals. The majority of the animals killed were birds but included in this total were approximately 82,000 coyotes, 34,000 feral pigs, 28,000 beavers, 13,000 prairie dogs, 1,775 bobcats, 443 bears and 342 cougars, to name just a few of the species targeted. That’s a lot of damage control.
The operation has an annual budget of about $121 million which is a combination of federal appropriations and payments from customers. Primary among Wildlife Service’s customers are farmers and ranchers (which helps explain why it is part of the Department of Agriculture instead of an agency of the Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service).
The general public was given a window into the work of Wildlife Service last month when thousands of birds were reported to have mysteriously died in South Dakota. Upon investigation it was admitted by the USDA that poison bait had been set out for the birds after a local farmer complained that the birds were defecating in his animal feed. Dead birds were also reported “falling from the sky” in Arkansas and Louisiana into residential areas and parks. As to whether this was an unusual occurrence, a USDA biologist said the agency does not typically poison animals, but they felt it made sense in this case and that lethal means are always a last resort. The biologist continued by saying this was a situation where it was what they had to do. (“USDA Acknowledges Poisoning Birds in South Dakota” by Hugh Collins, AOLNews, 1/21/11).
But Wildlife Service’s record does not support the claim that lethal means are an infrequent or unusual occurrence. The birds in question were starlings and red winged blackbirds. In 2009 1.3 million starlings and 966,000 red winged blackbirds were killed by Wildlife Service using a combination of lethal means, mainly shooting and poisoning. And the year before that, a total of about 2.5 million starlings and blackbirds were killed. Apparently these birds have been targets of Wildlife Service for awhile; one of their fact sheets says “[b]lackbirds and starlings damage grain crops and eat livestock feed, causing significant economic losses to agricultural producers.”
Wildlife Service claims its programs strive to develop and use wildlife damage management strategies that are biologically sound, environmentally safe, and socially acceptable. However, this may be nice talk wrapped around the disturbing truth that poison seems to be one of the management strategies of choice.
The poison used to kill the blackbirds and starlings that fell from the sky is Compound DRC-1339. DRC-1339 is a slow acting toxicant that causes renal damage and death by uremic poisoning. It is fed to birds through bait plots of rice treated with the poison. Wildlife Service states the poison has a high specificity for birds and presents minimal hazard to non targeted animals. The poison is also used on pigeons, gulls, magpies and ravens in addition to blackbirds and starlings. Millions of birds are killed annually by Wildlife Service, the majority by Compound DRC-1339.
Another poison used by Wildlife Service is M-44 Cyanide which contains the deadly ingredient sodium cyanide. This poison is mainly used to kill coyotes, foxes, and feral dogs that could prey on livestock. M–44 works by ejecting a sodium cyanide capsule of powder into the mouth of an animal when the animal pulls on a baited unit. The sodium cyanide powder reacts with the moisture in the animal’s mouth, releasing hydrogen cyanide gas. Death is supposed to occur from 10 seconds to 2 minutes after the device is triggered. (“The M-44 Cyanide Ejector Mechanism,” September 2002, aphis.usda.gov).
Wildlife Service claims the M–44 is safe to use and poses an insignificant risk to the environment. Their website says that if, for some reason, the contents of the capsule spill onto the soil, the active ingredient dissipate into gas rapidly due to soil moisture; and if there is no moisture, the sodium cyanide filters through the soil, where it is readily degraded by micro-organisms or other mechanisms.
The folks at Wildlife Service also claim the risk of unintentionally killing non targeted animals is very small since field personnel use their expertise in animal behavior patterns when placing the M-44 units. Wildlife Service may claim this to be the case, but in fact, according to their own website, 12,000 coyotes, 242 raccoons, 206 fox, 48 opossum, 32 dogs, 31 skunk, 3 bobcats and 1 black bear were unintentionally killed due to M-44 poisoning in 2009.
Sodium cyanide is a Category One toxicant indicating the greatest degree of acute toxicity. Many environmental groups and wildlife advocates are working to ban this lethal poison as both extremely dangerous and inhumane. A bill has been introduced in Congress (H.R. 5643) seeking to prohibit the use of sodium cyanide in predator control programs. In the meantime, Wildlife Service continues to use it.
Wildlife Service also carries out nonlethal wildlife management through the use of such tools as motion activated sound and light alarm systems, livestock protection dogs and non-toxic repellents. Millions of animals are dispersed annually using nonlethal methods. One wonders why this isn’t adequate.
What is really the point of killing all these animals year after year? (4.1 million in 2009; 5.0 million in 2008; 2.4 million in 2007; and 1.6 million in 2006). When you look at the numbers the program starts to look more like an annual public works project offering steady employment and job security rather than a necessary and defensible federal expenditure. How is success defined and measured? Maybe we should consider just paying the farmers and ranchers directly for their losses instead of killing millions of animals. And to what extent is the public responsible anyway for paying for such losses? (Really, instead of poisoning the birds defecating in the farmers feed lot, how about building a cover?) Wildlife Service serves some valuable functions like testing animals for disease; maybe that should be the focus of their work.
There is something futile about the entire killing operation. As discussed in my 10/24/10 blog post, “The Paradox of Killing Wildlife as Population Control” nature has a way of compensating for human manipulation of animal populations. Such is the issue currently being played out around geese.
Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that 1,676 geese were killed over the summer by federal officials in the name of air safety. Wildlife Service rounded up geese in the New York City area and parts of Nassau County and gassed them claiming it was necessary to ensure air safety. But Wildlife Service has been killing geese for years and yet air collisions can still occur. The year before the U.S. Airways flight landed in the Hudson River after colliding with geese, Wildlife Service had killed over 14,000 geese.
The Times article ends by saying “[t]he geese’s numbers rebounded quickly after the round-ups…so the Agriculture Department is gearing up for another round of goose removals this year…focusing on more sites and extending the hunt…” ("1,676 Geese Were Killed Last Summer for Air Safety" by Alice Speri, New York Times, 2/9/11).
What a business. First Wildlife Service is called in as the expert to assess the problem, and then its hired to fix it. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
Prior Blog Posts:
The Structure of our State Wildlife Agency System
9/25/09
Teaching Children to Kill
10/02/09
The Supreme Court and the Culpability of a Child
11/18/09
The Federal Gun Tax
12/09/09
Lead Ammunition
1/14/10
Connecting the Dots of Violence
2/01/10
Man as "Super-Predator"
3/17/10
U.S. v Stevens: What interests are being protected?
4/27/10
Predation Control: to what end?
9/14/10
The Paradox of Killing Wildlife as Population Control
10/24/10
Who Does Wildlife Belong to? (The Public Trust Doctrine)
11/22/10
Lyme Disease: Ticks Without Deer
1/20/11
