Animal Rights Lawsuits Hurting Wildlife Funding & Draining Taxpayer Dollars

Legal defense costs are an increasing drain on conservation funding today.Alarmed by the trend, the Boone and Crockett Club has launched a new examination of federal statutes that enable ongoing litigation at a high cost to wildlife and the American taxpayer. The Club’s primary concern is the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), which reimburses organizations that successfully sue federal agencies for non-compliance with federal law. Although well intended, abuses of EAJA are escalating into a modern conservation issue with potentially severe long-term consequences. “”The Club was and is deeply involved in designing and now protecting the economic engines that drive conservation in America,” said Ben Wallace, president of Boone and Crockett Club, “Since the 1880s, we’ve been the guardian of the most successful wildlife conservation system in the world. It’s a system that depends on funding, and we take very seriously the fact that money and other resources intended to support conservation are being diverted elsewhere.”” Past Club President Lowell E. Baier is leading the ongoing investigation and his preliminary findings were reported in a two-article series published in Boone and Crockett’s magazine, “Fair Chase.” The articles, complete with detailed background and statistics, are now available free to the public at www.boone-crockett.org...more