Agriculture groups—including livestock organizations—and 200 associations sent letters to Congress calling for continued budgetary support for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Wildlife Services (WS).
Congressional funding was $1.38 million in fiscal year (FY) 2021. In collaboration with state wildlife agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Tribes, WS addresses ways to minimize wildlife conflicts that damage agriculture and industrial resources and to protect human health and safety.
“Wildlife causes more than $12.8 billion in damage each year to natural resources, public infrastructures, private property and agriculture,” the letter read.
The letter stated WS is essential to agriculture and supports farmers and ranchers in all 50 states and two territories to reduce the impact of livestock predators, which cause an estimated $232 million annually in livestock losses.
“In FY 2021, WS provided more than 20,500 technical assistance activities that enabled 44,115 livestock producers to implement improved husbandry and methods such as the use of guard animals, exclusion, fencing and predator dispersal,” the letter stated.
According to WS’ annual Program Data Reports, in FY 2021, there were 2,655 incidents the agency responded to for adult beef cattle and 8,236 incidents for beef calves. WS also responded to 2,848 incidents for adult sheep, 5,219 for lambs and 259 for horses.
The primary predators to livestock that WS lethally removed included 63,965 coyotes, 324 gray wolves, 196 mountain lions, 421 black bears and six grizzly bears.
Additionally, the letter stated predators cause $619 million in losses to field crops annually and $146 million to vegetables, fruits and nuts.
“Protection of natural resources is a growing need,” the letter read. “WS has invested resources in conservation of game species including mule deer, bighorn sheep, antelope and waterfowl in eight states. In FY 2021, WS selected 34 projects in 12 states—in cooperation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service under the latest Barm Bill—focusing on specific problem populations, while continuing work to reduce feral swine damage on approximately 188 million acres in 37 states and three territories.”
The letter and report also state that WS processed more than 14,600 wildlife strikes with civil aircraft and more than 10,000 strikes with military aircraft. WS trained 5,056 airport and military personnel to prevent wildlife from colliding with aircraft, improving travel safety. According to the report, wildlife strikes cause approximately $200 million in losses to American civil aviation each year.
WS also supported APHIS on emergency response efforts to animal diseases, natural disasters, hazardous spills and wildfires.
Throughout FY 2021, the report cites the agency encountered about 26.6 million animals while responding to calls for assistance. WS dispersed 93 percent of the animals encountered and lethally removed 6.6 percent—or approximately 1.76 million—to reduce damage. Invasive species accounted for 77 percent (1,352,838 head) and native species 23 percent (404,565 head) of the wildlife lethally removed.
“It has been WS’s cooperative nature that has allowed it to accomplish all of the above-listed programs and has made it the most cost-effective and efficient program in the federal government in the areas of wildlife damage management and public health and safety,” the letter concluded.
The organizations stated in the letter they are committed to working with members of Congress “to strengthen WS resources and to ensure a continued federal partnership in the responsible management of our nation’s wildlife.”
The environmental group WildEarth Guardians said in a statement while the 2021 report shows the numbers for native species killed by WS are significantly lower than in previous years, the decrease is primarily due to only 3 percent of the blackbirds and cowbirds lethally removed in 2019. WildEarth Guardians was disappointed the 2021 report showed no significant reduction in “kill statistics for historically persecuted native carnivores such as gray wolves, coyotes, foxes, black bears, cougars, as well as beavers.”
The statement also highlighted WS “unintentionally” killed 2,700 animals, and it denounced using “indiscriminate killing tools like ‘M-44’ sodium cyanide bombs, traps, and snares that greatly increase the risk for causalities.”
“WildEarth Guardians believes that devoting more taxpayer dollars to Wildlife Services specifically for nonlethal management positions, research and supplies is crucial to seeing a meaningful decrease in kill statistics for native species,” said Lindsay Larris, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
