Amador ranchers may lose USDA protection from predators
– Scott Sonner, Associated Press Writer
When ranchers and farmers in Amador County discover livestock eaten or mutilated, they often turn to the county’s official trapper, who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services.
However, conservationists are now arguing that a new report, which says that U.S. taxpayers should stop subsidizing the $100 million Wildlife Services program, is proof that the practice of killing more than 1 million wild animals a year is too expensive in rough economic times.
The USDA’s Wildlife Services is a program ranchers and farmers have defended for nearly a century as critical to protecting their livestock from predators. The American Sheep Industry Association, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and more than 70 other livestock production and state agriculture offices in 35 states have recently cited more than $125 million in annual losses to the sheep, goat and cattle industry as a result of predation.
Yet, as Congress tries to tackle the looming federal budget crisis, a new report by conservationists entitled “War on Wildlife” documents significant increases in recent years in both the number of carnivores killed and the size of the agency’s budget – $117 million in 2007, up 14 percent from the average from 2004-06.
Citing concerns about the economy and the potential for a fresh look at the decades-old controversy in the new Obama administration, 115 environmental groups signed onto a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to abolish the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services.
“We ask Mr. Obama to get out his scalpel and protect the public’s hard-earned dollars from this unscrupulous agency,” said Wendy Keefover-Ring, director of carnivore protection for WildEarth Guardians based in Bozeman, Mont.
The vast majority of the 121,524 animals killed in 2007 were coyotes – 90,326. But the trapping, poisoning and aerial gunning of the predators also is taking an increasing, unintended toll on other creatures, including 511 black bears and 340 endangered gray wolves in 2007, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press.
“While most people enjoy observing wildlife, Wildlife Services massacres our nation’s wildlife mainly to benefit agribusiness,” Keefover-Ring charged. “They’re killing more and more predators, and more endangered species and using more tax resources.”
For local rancher Carolyn Fregulia, the purpose of the USDA’s Wildlife Services is not to needlessly kill animals, but to protect the safety of ranchers, farmers and their livelihood.
“This is a good service that we need here,” she said, explaining that she and a number of ranchers in the Clinton Bar area outside of Jackson have found the county trapper to be extremely helpful.
“There is a large predator problem in our region,” Fregulia added. “Mountain lions especially are becoming a huge issue, moreso than I think anyone in Amador County realizes. When I was a little girl, a rancher could shoot a mountain lion that was causing a problem. Now that they’re protected, and commercial development is encroaching on their territory, from what I see the population in Amador is unnaturally large and very close to us. There are so many of them now that having goats in nearly impossible.”
Fregulia’s comments came in the aftermath of a mountain lion’s vicious attack of a dog two weeks ago outside of Sutter Creek.
On March 1, Gary Mann and his girlfriend were out burning brush near their home when one of their three dogs, a 50-pound shar-pei, heard something rustling beyond the brush that edges around their property. The shar-pei went to investigate and the couple immediately heard the howls of their dog and a different, larger animal.
“There’s no mistaking the scream and what happened,” said neighbor Don Sanderson, who lives 200 yards away from the new manufactured home that sits in a secluded, rustic nook of the enclave on Shake Ridge Road. “There’s nothing else that could do that kind of damage in 10 seconds.”
Ten seconds was how long it took for one of Mann’s rottweilers to streak into the thrashing brush onto a downhill slope, where it chased off whatever had mauled Mann’s shar-pei. The dog would need 100 stitches to piece it back together.
Patricia Chapman, a pastor who lives in Pioneer, about 4 miles down from where the attack took place, said the choice may come down to protecting endangered animals or people.
“I realize certain animals are protected regarding us shooting them, but if it comes down to a choice between our beautiful, intelligent, loving gifts from God or great-grandkids, there’s no question in my mind of the outcome,” she told the Ledger Dispatch.
USDA spokeswoman Carol Bannerman said Vilsack intends to review all of USDA’s programs but that it would be weeks before he had any idea about possible changes he wants to make. Bannerman said the federal agency only kills predators when livestock owners or state officials request their assistance. She said most of the time those private individuals or state agencies provide about half the funding for the effort.
“From our perspective, we certainly feel that we have a responsibility to respond to those requests,” she said from APHIS headquarters in Riverdale, Md.
In Fregulia’s mind, if the county trapper in Amador does not stay active in responding to those requests, then the implications could be grave. “Given how many lions the ranchers are seeing now, I think if we lost our county trapper the impact might be very bad,” she speculated. “By that, I mean that I think a person would eventually be attacked.”
Scott Thomas Anderson and Raheem Hosseini contributed to this report.