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Federal Court: Citizens have No Rights to Seek Accountability

Date
March 19, 2013
Contact
Wendy Keefover 303 819-5229
In This Release
Wildlife  
#EndTheWarOnWildlife
Las Vegas, NV. A federal court, in a troubling decision issued last week, dismissed WildEarth Guardians’ National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) claims against the federal government’s highly secretive and cruel wildlife-killing program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Wildlife Services is wildly out of control, secretive, and abusive wildlife-killing machine, and sadly, the Court did not allow citizens to review this agency’s misdeeds that have occurred over decades,” stated Wendy Keefover, Director of Carnivore Protection for WildEarth Guardians.

In April 2012, WildEarth Guardians sued the ironically named“Wildlife Services” for its failure to update its 18-year-old programmatic environmental review, which primarily relies on outdated scientific studies from the 1970s and 1980s, and for its failure to conduct the required environmental analysis of its wildlife-killing activities in Nevada.

The Court dismissed WildEarth Guardians’ challenge to Wildlife Services’ woefully outdated environmental review, and found that Guardians’ members lacked “standing” to object to the government’s massive wildlife cull.

“Each year, the federal government kills millions of our magnificent wildlife using outdated, barbaric means, and now unfortunately, a federal court has left citizens and taxpayers with no ability to seek redress,” said Keefover.

The Court also dismissed WildEarth Guardians’ challenge to the Nevada program for lack of standing, finding that Nevada would simply take over the national program if Wildlife Services was forced to stop its wildlife killing until it followed the law. The Court accepted Wildlife Services’ argument that in the absence of federal action, the State of Nevada would continue the business of wildlife killing,even without the aid of millions of federal tax dollars.

“The Court’s decision effectively precludes judicial review of Wildlife Services’ activities in Nevada and in any other state authorized to conduct the wildlife-killing program absent federal involvement – whether or not that state actually has the financial resources to do so,” emphasized Keefover.

Guardians’ lawsuit also challenges Wildlife Services’ use of planes and helicopters to track and kill coyotes and wolves in Congressionally-designated wilderness areas in violation of the Wilderness Act; the court allowed those claims to stand.

“Wildlife Services’ excessive killing has no real benefit,even to the massive agricultural industry it purports to support. Because of this, WildEarth Guardians plans to mount an appeal of this unfortunate decision,”she added.

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View the Court’s March 14, 2013 Opinion:

https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/Order_Wildlife_Services_3_14_2013.pdf

View the Government’s Motion to Dismiss

View WildEarth Guardians’ Complaint

Learn More About Guardians’ Campaign to Defund the Government’s War on Wildlife