| WRR Home > Media Room > Press
Releases & Articles from WRR > Wildlife Rescue
& Rehabilitation Calls for a Halt in Predator Control
 For
Immediate Release
Monday, May 5, 2008
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Calls
for a Halt in Predator Control
Press Release by Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation
San Antonio, TX – Monday, May 5, 2008–
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation (WRR) today calls for
an end to the cruel and inhumane practice of predator control
in the U.S. and cites a recent incident near Ingram, Texas.
On April 12, 2008 a cougar was caught in a neck snare set
for coyotes along the perimeter of the Kramer Ranch. Six hours
later this beautiful animal was discovered strangled when
the rancher finally checked the snares.
Cougars have no protection in Texas, even
though other states have performed extensive population studies
to restore cougars in the Western states. Texas allows killing
of cougars by anyone, anytime, by any legal method. Cougar
populations have been established in Western and Southern
Texas but sightings of cougars are rare in central and eastern
Texas. They were extirpated from Eastern Texas and are only
now beginning to be seen again. Though there was no evidence
that this male cougar had attacked or killed any animals from
this or any other ranch, he was killed because of who he was:
a predator.
"Habitat loss and fragmentation, decimation
of prey species, unregulated hunting and trapping will lead
to eventual loss of these magnificent animals if we do nothing
to stop the devastation now," stated Don Elroy, Advocacy
& Education Coordinator for WRR. "Traps, snares and
poisons such as M-44 and compound 1080 are devastating predator
populations throughout the country. It is time we end the
war on wildlife initiated by Wildlife Services." Wildlife
Services is a division of the USDA that profits from the daily
killing of animals around the country.
Neck snares are inhumane by their very existence.
An unsuspecting animal attempts to crawl through an opening
in a fence, becomes caught in the snare, which was set there
by the rancher or Wildlife Services agent, and the snare tightens,
thereby strangling this animal. M-44 bait traps (sodium cyanide)
are a bait lure that attracts these animals who then are subjected
to poison sprayed directly into their mouths. Compound 1080
(sodium fluoroacetate) collars are attached to the neck of
livestock animals and when predators attack, they are immediately
killed with poison from the collar. Both poisons (sodium cyanide,
sodium fluoroacetate) were originally banned in the United
States because they are extremely dangerous, environmentally
damaging and indiscriminate in what animals are killed. The
incident with this cougar shows that the neck snare is absolutely
just as indiscriminate.
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation calls
upon Texas and the entire country to end these inhumane and
intentionally cruel practices that are inflicted on wild animals
under the guise of management. It is time that these cruel
devices and this philosophy are legislated out of existence.
Facts
| • |
Cougars trapped and killed in Texas
average 30–50 per year, most animals being trapped
and killed at the request of ranch and livestock owners.
(Texas
Wildlife Services harvest data) |
| • |
Cougar diet primarily consists of white
tailed deer, feral hogs and javelinas. In a study of
collared cougars, out of 75 prey animals killed only
seven were livestock animals. ("Prey Use by Mountain
Lions in Southern Texas." Louis A. Harveson, Michael
E. Tewes, Nova J. Silvy and Jimmy Rutledge. The Southwestern
Naturalist, Vol. 45, No. 4, December 2002, pp. 472–476) |
| • |
Cougars are classified as "non
game" animals in Texas and can be killed by anyone
with a hunting license without any season or limits.
(Texas
Parks and Wildlife Regulations) |
| • |
Sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate
killed 14,000 animals in 2006 and is being investigated
in human deaths as well. (USDA
Wildlife Services data / Associated
Press story) |
| • |
Neck snares kill animals by a slow
and painful death. The muscles around the windpipe and
arteries slow the process of death. Animals dying in
this manner have thick and bloody lymph fluid that swells
their head and neck and causes a prolonged agonizing
death. (The Humane Society of The United States) |
| • |
Figures for 1998 show 159,000 licenses
were sold to trap coyote. (Animal Protection Institute) |
| • |
Traps and snares are indiscriminate
and kill unintended victims. (R. L. Phillips. "Evaluation
of 3 types of snares for capturing coyotes." Wildlife
Society Bulletin, 24: 107–110, 1996) |
| • |
The EPA is now evaluating comments
on a petition to prohibit the use of both sodium cyanide
and sodium fluoroacetate. |
About Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation (WRR)
(www.wildlife-rescue.org)
was founded in 1977 in San Antonio by Lynn Cuny. Our mission
is to provide rescue, rehabilitation, and release of orphaned,
injured, and displaced wildlife, and provide sanctuary with
dignity for non-releasable and non-native wild animals who
have been the victims of the exotic pet trade, rescued from
roadside zoos, or used in research. Today WRR volunteers and
staff annually receive 5,000–6,000 animals at our 187-acre
sanctuary outside Kendalia, Texas. Over 600 wild and farmed
animals make their permanent home at WRR.
Contact Information
Don Elroy, Advocacy & Education Coordinator
Phone: (830) 336-2725 x304
E-mail: don@wildlife-rescue.org
Website: www.wildlife-rescue.org
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Inc.
P.O. Box 369
Kendalia, TX 78027
# # # End # # #
|
