9th Circuit asked to stop USDA predator killing

Conservationists have appealed a federal judge's rejection of their lawsuit in Nevada aimed at shutting down a federal program that spends more than $100 million a year to subsidize the killing of coyotes, mountain lions and other predators that threaten livestock. The appeal filed Thursday targets a ruling in March by U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, who dismissed most of the WildEarth Guardians lawsuit that claims the Depression-era program of the U.S. Agriculture Department is illegal because it relies on scientific and environmental data that is nearly two decades old. Among other things, Du said the harm cited by the conservationists would not be alleviated by shutting down the Wildlife Services operation in Nevada — where 6,000 coyotes are killed annually and federal officials spend about $1.5 million a year — because the state has said it would carry out the killings itself. Lawyers for WildEarth Guardians said in its appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Nevada doesn't have the resources to continue all the work. A state wildlife official agreed. "We wouldn't have the manpower," Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said Friday. "They are in some wild places in Nevada doing that kind of predator work where we have zero personnel. We already have a full plate." The conservationists said the program that spent $127 million to exterminate more than 5 million animals in 2010 should be suspended nationally until USDA updates its scientific analysis that's based largely on an environmental impact statement conducted in 1994 when the program was much smaller. In 1988, Wildlife Services spent $26 million to control 17 target species, compared to 2010 when it spent $126 million on a list of about 300 species, court documents state...more