By Nick Engelfried
Last year, a single organization killed over 375,000 native wild animals in the United States, including cougars, bobcats, black bears, coyotes, foxes, and wolves. The entity responsible wasn’t a hunting club or a private wildlife-killing contest. Rather, it was a secretive agency within the federal government. For decades, Wildlife Services has been slaughtering animals, from predators at the top of the food chain to smaller creatures like red-winged blackbirds. It is time to shine a light on this agency and the threat it poses not just to targeted wildlife species, but to other animals and people who end up as collateral damage.

Housed under the US Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services’ major goal is to eliminate animals deemed “nuisances” by agricultural interests. Its origins date back to the late 1800s, when our understanding of the role of predators in ecosystems was very different than it is today. In the 1890s, the USDA created the Bureau of Biological Survey, a federal organization created to help farmers and ranchers control “pest” animals. This early effort eventually gave rise to two very different approaches to wildlife management.

The original purpose of the Bureau of Biological Survey wasn’t all bad from an animal-lover’s perspective. At a time when wholesale eradication was the generally accepted approach to predator management, the Bureau’s work included campaigns to educate farmers about how to keep beneficial animal species from being caught in the crosshairs. Over time, this more forward-thinking part of the Bureau’s work evolved into what is now the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency tasked with protecting threatened and endangered species. However, the Bureau of Biological Survey also had another, much darker legacy.

Up through the middle of the 20th century, policymakers and the public largely saw predators–as well as songbirds that eat crops and other “pest” animals–as deserving to be eliminated by any means necessary. Gradually, the modern science of ecology confirmed what Indigenous societies around the world have long known: that all animals, including predators, have important parts in the fabric of life. However, while our societal response to predators has in some way shifted along with science, the mentality that treats troublesome animals as things to be shot at or poisoned remains deeply entrenched, even in parts of the federal government. Wildlife Services is a prime example of this.

While the more enlightened elements of the Bureau of Biological Survey gave rise to the Fish and Wildlife Service, its predator-killing programs laid the foundation for the creation of Wildlife Services, which today enforces the Animal Damage Control Act passed in 1931. The fact that these two very different agencies have such similar names has made it easy for the public to be confused about exactly what it is Wildlife Services does. This confusion is compounded by the relative inaccessibility of basic information.

Wildlife Services has long been an unusually secretive agency, which today has a very limited website that devotes little attention to its predator-killing initiatives. What we do know is Wildlife Services kills hundreds of thousands of wild animals every year, with last year’s carnage actually being much less than in prior decades. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Wildlife Services agents killed 1.3 million native animals in 2019, including over 360,000 red-winged blackbirds alone.

Some of the specific methods used to exterminate animals are also highly controversial. Wildlife Services is known to shoot helpless wolves and coyotes from airplanes, and uses cruel snare and leghold traps to catch predators. Perhaps most shocking of all is the use of “cyanide bombs,” or M-44s, indiscriminate killing devices that spray poison in the faces of unsuspecting animals lured to baited traps. Stumbling into a cyanide bomb is a cruel fate for any creature–but the victims aren’t limited to the intended targets. Casualties also include hundreds of non-target wild animals as well as domestic pets and even children who come into range of the traps.

In response to the public outcry over cyanide bombs, earlier this year the US Department of Interior announced it will ban the use of these devices on Bureau of Land Management public lands. Yet, Wildlife Services continues to use cruel methods to kill countless animals every year at the behest of agricultural interests.

A major problem is that this agency’s overwhelming focus on a particular constituency–farmers and ranchers–has given private interests a disproportionate amount of influence over its decisions. In fact, much of Wildlife Services’ activities can be seen as “appeasement actions,” designed to show it is being responsive to the demands of Big Agriculture, even when the methods used are both inhumane and dubious in their effectiveness. For example, Wildlife Services has long targeted coyotes mercilessly, killing more of these animals than any other large predator, and often relying on highly visible methods like aerial gunning. This, despite the fact that this type of persecution campaign is unlikely to actually reduce coyote numbers by much in the long term.

Because coyotes give birth to larger litters when their populations are under pressure, these intelligent canines have proven remarkably resistant to predator control. Yet, Wildlife Services employees killed over 68,000 of them last year–an immense toll in terms of needlessly inflicted death and suffering. There would appear to be no justification for this level of carnage.

Wildlife Services has been more resistant to changing its approach to coexistence with predators than perhaps any other US federal agency. Still, there are signs agency decision makers may finally be starting to listen to calls for change. Since 2019, the total number of native animals killed by Wildlife Services has declined significantly, as its use of highly indiscriminate extermination methods became less widespread. The banning of cyanide bombs on BLM lands also suggests other parts of the federal government may finally be losing patience with Wildlife Services’ approach.

In the end, the deadly excesses of Wildlife Services are possible largely due to the fact that its actions are carried out far from the public eye. The more light is shown on the agency’s actions, the greater the chances of making real change become. Thus, we can all play a role helping end its unnecessary persecution of wildlife.

Whether by sharing a petition, talking to friends about the impact of Wildlife Services’ killing programs, or educating others about the importance of predators in the ecosystem, each one of us can help. And, with enough support, we can finally turn the page on an era of history in which animals who come into conflict with agriculture are targeted for mass extermination.

Photo credit: Yathin S Krishnappa

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Nick Engelfried Writes About Animals, the Environment, and Conservation for the ForceChange network