Grant County, NM, commissioners recently ruled 2-1 against renewing a contract with USDA’s Wildlife Services to perform predator removals after crop damage or depredations are verified.
Conservation group Center for Biological Diversity claimed the contract was not renewed because “the federal agency, which kills carnivores on behalf of the livestock industry, ignored requirements within its last contract.” The contract would have allocated up to $25,000 to the service to “protect residents, property, livestock, crops and natural resources from damage caused by predators and other nuisance wildlife.”
Environmentalists celebrated the commissioners’ move. “The county is rightfully holding USDA Wildlife Services accountable when they repeatedly disregarded this contract provision by using cruel and indiscriminate poisons instead of nonlethal means,” said Animal Protection New Mexico, an animal activist group. The county is mostly rural and includes a large portion of the Gila National Forest.
