Wildlife Services' Livestock Protection Program Hurts the Environment

Disruption of eco-systems:

· By eliminating predators from the food chain and reducing populations of non-targeted animals such as bald eagles and wolves, lethal predator control programs can do irreversible damage to biodiversity. For example, many controlled species are at or near the top of the food chain and often influence the structure and function of the entire ecosystem.

· When lethal predator controls are successful in reducing local levels of coyotes and other large predators, the resulting rise in prey species such as mice and rabbits causes thousands of dollars of damage to crops and rangeland, and the increase in mid-sized predator species (earlier held in check by large predator species) impacts waterfowl and migratory bird populations.

· In addition, these programs cause thousands of incidental wildlife deaths each year, including those of threatened and endangered species.

Use of dangerous toxins:

· The wildlife services livestock protection program uses toxins including the compound 1080 and sodium cyanide that were banned for predator control in 1972. These toxins pollute soil and water. Following an executive order by President Nixon, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency canceled the registrations of the poisons compound 1080 (used in collars on domestic livestock), strychnine, sodium cyanide and thallium sulfate.

· Under pressure from western livestock interests, Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan subsequently reversed the bans, and the compound are used in states across the west.

· Compound 1080 is a chemical so lethal that 1/500th of an ounce can kill a grown human. Poisoning of animals with 1080 kills not just the target animals but in addition any other creatures that feeds on it.

Overgrazing:

· The federally funded wildlife services program goes hand in hand with the federal range program that allows private ranchers to graze cattle, sheep and goats on public lands at below market cost. Both subsidies serve as incentives to ranchers to overstock the land.

· Overgrazing contributes to topsoil erosion and water pollution and has displaced native grassland species such as deer, elkhorn, pronghorn and tortoise.

· In 1998, the federal grazing program cost taxpayers roughly $100 million. (For more information on grazing, go to www.greenscissors.org/publiclands.)