Also, the United States' Environmental Protection Agency is considering a ban on two animal poisons, sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate, which are placed on or near human-exploited animals to kill wild animals, despite the negligible loss of property caused by predation. "In 2005, predator-caused losses from all species, including dogs, amounted to only 0.18% of total cattle production over the year."
The poisons are distributed by the Wildlife Services agency, a misleadingly named division of the USDA that each year kills tens of thousands of predators like coyotes, wolves and bobcats in order to protect commodified animals (which, by the way, are invasive species). Some service to wildlife, right? As part of the Ag Department, they are better described as the Rancher Services agency. Exterminators, really.
Regrettably, this is not a change in policy, merely a course correction to reduce indiscriminate killing and poisoning of water supplies by a couple of nasty biohazards. According to the USDA's website, Wildlife Services:
Provides Federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts and create a balance that allows people and wildlife to coexist peacefully.Peacefully? Wildlife Services (I can't even write that with a straight face) will continue to kill native animals that threaten the meat industry's profits. Wildlife Services spent 108 million taxpayer dollars in 2006 to kill more than 1.6 million “nuisance” animals, over 200,000 of which were mammals (i.e., beavers, rabbits and raccoons, among others). The balance of animals killed were birds, including blackbirds, owls, hawks, ducks and geese, as well as over a million starlings.
You can add to the public comments on the agency's proposal to end the use of these poisons. Click here and search for Docket ID "EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-0944"). You will see a comment icon. Click on that, and you will be taken to a comment form. The comment period ends on January 15, 2008.
For the sake of reference, here's the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility's petition for the ban. There's some interesting reading in there on the importance of carnivores in the eco-system, the "sledge hammer" approach to wildlife management, the bio-terrorist threat posed by the ready availability of these substances and so on.
Labels: animal agriculture, environment, habitat encroachment, livestock predation, primates, USDA, wildlife, Wildlife Services
