County ends use of lethal methods for wildlife control
UKIAH >> After seven years of effort, proponents of non-lethal wildlife management techniques celebrate the end to a decadesold program that relied on killing coyotes, raccoons and other local wildlife. This will create the opportunity for non-lethal methods, which have been used in nearby counties like Marin and Sonoma for decades and are reportedly effective. Other Northern California counties like Humboldt, Shasta and Siskiyou have also altered their programs recently to reduce the killing of local wildlife.
In 2014, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Biological Diversity, Project Coyote, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Animal Welfare Insti
tute sued the county for not considering the environmental impacts of killing wildlife. At that time, the county suspended its contract with US Wildlife Services and conducted an environmental impact review. After certifying the review, the county reopened a contract with Wildlife Services in 2020 for five years, but it had a clause that required the parties to renew it annually.
On Tuesday, Aug. 17, County Supervisors Ted Williams, John Haschak and Maureen Mulheren voted to cancel the contract in a three to two vote. Jon Spitz, a member of the Mendocino Non-lethal Wildlife Alliance steering committee sees the success as a direct result of the grassroots organizing and community outreach his organization has been conducting.
The Alliance was formed to fight against the use of lethal methods in 2017. They began a local outreach program that included educational meetings that were held throughout the county and worked to find and support candidates who were sympathetic to their cause.
At a meeting in Fall 2019, Don Lipmanson, a local resident, attorney and member of the Alliance steering committee explained the history of wildlife management in Mendocino. According to Lipmanson, prior to the 1980s, Mendocino County hired their own trappers who dealt with troublesome predators. In the 1980s, Mendocino County contracted with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, which focused on killing apex predators instead of developing programs to harden nonlethal defenses. Per the alliance, Wildlife Services killed 261 bears, 181 lions, 112 bobcats, 235 gray foxes and 4,119 coyotes from
1997 to 2017 in Mendocino
County.
Spitz said changing demographics in the county is also partially responsible for the change in attitudes. The vast majority of wildlife interactions in the county are with smaller creatures like racoons, skunks and possums. The Alliance is pushing the county to now contract with a wildlife exclusion company that is modeled after Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue’s exclusion management program.
This will give residents the option of humanely removing raccoons, skunks, possums or other wildlife from areas where they are not wanted. According to Spitz, the technicians remove the animals and then build defenses to keep them from returning.
How does this impact apex predators like lions, bears and coyotes? According to Spitz, the State of California retains a contract with USDA Wildlife Services and can issue a depredation permit if nonlethal
methods are not working for a problem lion or bear.
The county’s program was duplicative as the USDA needed a permit from California Fish and Wildlife to kill the larger animals, he said. Ranchers or other livestock owners have the right to kill a coyote on sight, but they will no longer be able to ask the county to do it for them at taxpayer’s expense.
Spitz said this program will help to protect coyotes, which take much of the blame for lost livestock. He adds there are humane methods that deter coyotes and the program they are promoting will assist ranchers with education on how to humanely protect livestock. The other major problem for agriculture in Mendocino is feral pigs. The pigs are not protected by this change as they are non-native. If a property owner catches feral pigs damaging their property, they can kill them, Spitz said.