By Rachel Blevins
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<p>&nbsp;Data released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) &nbsp;shows that more than 1.3 million native animals were killed by Wildlife &nbsp;Services in 2017—and despite the fact that the slaughter of wolves, &nbsp;cougars, and birds was funded by taxpayers to benefit the agriculture &nbsp;industry, it is receiving very little media attention.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The total number of animals killed by USDA in 2017 was <strong>2.3 million</strong>, &nbsp;and many of the species were killed by the thousands as members of &nbsp;Wildlife Services responded to requests from agricultural corporations &nbsp;by turning to lethal measures to remove the animals by employing the use &nbsp;of poisons, gases, snares, and firearms.&nbsp;</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/pdr/PDR-G_Report.php?fy=2017&amp;fld=KILLED_EUTH&amp;fld_val=0">report</a> from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the death toll in 2017 included <strong>69,041 coyotes</strong>—15,631 &nbsp;were shot and killed by snipers on fixed-wing aircrafts, 14,062 were &nbsp;trapped with snares and 12,119 were killed by cyanide poison; <strong>23,646 beavers</strong>—the majority were caught by traps and 2,375 were killed by firearms; and <strong>15,933 prairie dogs</strong>—the overwhelming majority were targeted and killed by firearms.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The organization called “Wildlife Services” was also responsible for killing <strong>624,845 red-winged blackbirds</strong>, <strong>3,827 foxes</strong>, <strong>1,001 bobcats</strong>, <strong>675 river otters</strong>, <strong>552 black bears</strong>, <strong>427 badgers</strong>, <strong>415 wolves</strong>, and <strong>332 mountain lions</strong>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While the majority were killed “<em>intentionally</em>,” the report revealed that at least <strong>3,000 animals</strong> were killed unintentionally, showcasing legitimate flaws in the organization’s methods.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While those numbers may seem outrageously high, a <a href="http://www.mountain-news.com/news/article_72ddfe78-4973-11e8-8b63-ff697abf7084.html">report</a> from Mountain News in Lake Arrowhead, California, claimed that the figures “<em>almost &nbsp;certainly underestimate the actual number of animals exterminated, as &nbsp;program insiders have revealed that Wildlife Services kills many more &nbsp;animals than it reports.</em>”&nbsp;</p>
<p>Out of the 2.3 million animals killed by Wildlife Services last year, <strong>more than 1.3 million</strong> were native species. Unfortunately, 2017 was not an unusual year, as the USDA’s <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/pdr/PDR-G_Report.php?fy=2016&amp;fld=&amp;fld_val=">2016 report</a> showed that Wildlife Services killed <strong>2.7 wild animals</strong>, and at least 1.6 million were native species.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The slaughter was even worse in 2013 when Wildlife Services <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/governments-kill-of-4-million-animals-seen-as-anoverstep/2014/06/06/1de0c550-ecc4-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html?utm_term=.a9058430f3f0">killed</a> <strong>4 million wild animals</strong>. Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney for the Center for &nbsp;Biological Diversity (CBD), released a statement arguing that there is &nbsp;no evidence scientific evidence to show that the mass murder of wild &nbsp;animals helps anyone other than agricultural corporations. &nbsp;</p>
<p><em>“Despite mounting public outcry to reform these &nbsp;barbaric, outdated tactics, Wildlife Services continues its &nbsp;taxpayer-funded slaughter of America’s wildlife,”</em> Adkins said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“<em>There’s &nbsp;simply no scientific basis for continuing to shoot, poison and strangle &nbsp;millions of animals every year … Wolves, bears and other carnivores &nbsp;help keep the natural balance of their ecosystems. Our government kills &nbsp;off the predators, such as coyotes, and then kills off their prey—like &nbsp;prairie dogs—in an absurd, pointless cycle of violence.”</em>&nbsp;</p>
<p>An investigation <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.1312">conducted</a> by the Ecological Society of America found that <em>“many &nbsp;of these methods are implemented without first considering experimental &nbsp;evidence of their effectiveness in mitigating predation‐related threats &nbsp;or avoiding ecological degradation</em>.” &nbsp;</p>
<p>In response, a <a href="https://www.thedodo.com/wildlife-services-animals-killed-2016-2314386141.html">report</a> &nbsp;from The Dodo argued that by killing so many animals, including natural &nbsp;predators and their prey, Wildlife Services is actually “<em><strong>making the conflict between wild animals and farmers even worse</strong></em>,” and as research has shown, “<em>killing &nbsp;predators to protect livestock can even backfire. For instance, for &nbsp;each wolf killed,&nbsp;the odds that other wolves will prey on nearby farm &nbsp;animals actually increase.</em>”&nbsp;</p>
<p>The report from Mountain News claimed that while dozens of domestic &nbsp;animals and livestock were also killed by Wildlife Services, employees &nbsp;are “<em><strong>instructed not to report such incidental killings &nbsp;because that information would have an adverse effect on the agency’s &nbsp;ability to obtain funding</strong></em>.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition to using taxpayer funding to slaughter millions of wild &nbsp;animals each year, the USDA was recently caught breeding and then <a href="https://thefreethoughtproject.com/congressman-exposes-secretive-usda-kitten-incineration-experiments/">incinerating hundreds of kittens</a> in a horrific experiment. Rep. Mike Bishop exposed the “<em>secretive and problematic</em>” program, and he released a statement calling out the USDA:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote><em>“I’m shocked and disturbed that for decades the &nbsp;USDA—the very organization charged with enforcing animal welfare &nbsp;laws—has been unnecessarily killing hundreds of kittens in expensive and &nbsp;inefficient lab experiments. Any government research program like this &nbsp;one that’s been funded since the Nixon administration needs to be put &nbsp;under the microscope, especially when it involves using kittens as &nbsp;disposable test tubes in harmful tests that most taxpayers oppose.”</em></blockquote>
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