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Federal wildlife killing agency advisory committee to meet in D.C.
WASHINGTON—The advisory committee to “Wildlife Services”–the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s taxpayer-funded animal-killing program–will meet on October 4-5 in Washington, DC, without public comment allowed. The program, which kills hundreds of thousands of native animals every year at the behest of private industry, has long been criticized as secretive, brutal, and wasteful by conservation and animal groups.
“It’s just business as usual for this taxpayer-funded wildlife-killing machine,” said Chris Smith, southwest wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “They slaughter native wildlife by the hundreds of thousands while operating in the shadows with zero accountability to the American public.”
In 2022, alone, Wildlife Services received more than $109 million taxpayer dollars to conduct its operations which included the killing of more than 380,000 native species such as beavers, foxes, wolves, mountain lions, and even federally-protected grizzly bears.
The meeting announcement states that the National Wildlife Services Advisory Committee “serves as a public forum enabling those affected by the WS program to have a voice in the program’s policies.” However, no participation by the public is allowed during the meeting. The public can submit written comments up until October 13, 2023 by emailing them to Carrie Joyce, Designated Federal Officer at carrie.e.joyce@usda.gov.
Coyotes killed by Wildlife Services. Photo: James Balog
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