US sued by conservationists

WILDLIFE conservation groups are suing the US government, seeking to halt a plan to trap and kill as many as 120 mountain lions and black bears in Colorado in a bid to stem declines in populations of mule deer favoured by hunters.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Denver, accuses the Wildlife Services agency, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture, of violating federal law by failing to fully assess the potential impact of the predator-control plan on other native wildlife.

The same agency gained a measure of notoriety after one of its spring-loaded “cyanide bombs”, used for killing coyotes and other “nuisance” animals, went off in the hands of a 14-year-old Idaho boy last month, injuring the youth and killing his pet dog.

Wednesday’s lawsuit cites scientific research showing that habitat loss from oil and gas development, not natural predators, is mostly to blame for Colorado’s plunging mule deer numbers. And it asserts that the plan for killing bears and mountain lions, originally devised by Colorado’s own state wildlife managers, was designed to benefit hunters at public expense.

“The idea of using US taxpayer money to kill native wildlife on public lands is outrageous,” said Matthew Bishop, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Centre, a non-profit firm representing conservation groups in the lawsuit.

The case was brought by the Centre for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians. They are asking a judge to bar Wildlife Services from implementing the plan before the agency studies the likely consequences for the protected Canada lynx and other wildlife, as well as for the environment.

A Wildlife Services spokesman declined to comment. – Reuters