The highly secretive arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture known as Wildlife Services killed more than 3.2 million animals during fiscal year 2015, according to new data released by the agency. The total number of wolves, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, beavers, foxes, eagles and other animals killed largely at the behest of the livestock […]
Tag: killing

POLL: Should Zimbabwe and Namibia be allowed to sell their ivory stockpiles?
A huge legal sale of ivory intended to cut elephant poaching instead catastrophically backfired by dramatically increasing elephant deaths, according to new research. The revelation comes just months before a decision on whether to permit another legal sale and against a backdrop of more African elephants being killed for ivory than are being born. In […]

POLL: Should black bears be killed for Royal Guards’ fur caps?
Spending on British soldiers’ bearskin Busby hats has rocketed by nearly 500% since 2008 – despite thousands of troops being axed. Seven years ago a Labour Defence Minister, Baroness Taylor, met with animal rights campaigners to review designs of the controversial headgear. Activists hoped the Ministry of Defence would finally stop buying traditional caps made […]

African governments commit to preventing poisoning of wildlife
Moved by the plight of their continent’s endangered vultures and what this could mean for people, African Ministers gave their support to BirdLife’s vulture campaign last week in Nairobi at the UN Environment Assembly. This was further cemented by the approval of a new resolution on wildlife crime and trade that means African governments can […]

Will Zimbabwe Sell Off Its Rare ‘Painted Dogs’?
Last week Zimbabwe announced that because of the drought that’s ravaging the country—and leaving four million Zimbabweans in need of food aid—it will “destock” its national parks and reserves by selling off wildlife. The announcement by the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (also known as Zimparks) doesn’t say when the sales would begin, nor does […]

Top scientists back federal plan to protect Alaska predators
A group of scientists has backed a federal plan to restrict the trapping and gunning down of bears and wolves in Alaska’s wildlife refuges, in the face of bitter opposition from the state government. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has proposed an overhaul of hunting regulations for Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges, which […]

Taiji legal battle: court backs activist over baby dolphin kept in aquarium
Animal rights activists have claimed a significant victory in its battle to end Japan’s dolphin slaughter after a court ruled that an aquarium in Taiji – where hundreds of dolphins are killed every year – acted illegally when it refused entry to an Australian campaigner. The court in Wakayama, western Japan, on Friday awarded 110,000 […]
POLL: Should Norway’s whaling program be stopped?
So few people in Norway want to eat whale meat that it’s ending up in the feed manufactured for animals on fur farms, according to a new document released by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based nonprofit, and the U.S.-based Animal Welfare Institute. The document shows that more than 113 metric tons of minke whale […]