Born Free USA says it wants to show the world what really goes on in the woods. Click here for the video report from CNN.

The killing of native carnivores has been a common practice in North America since European colonists arrived nearly four centuries ago. When the early settlers encountered wolves, grizzly bears, and cougars along the eastern seaboard, they viewed these animals as a threat to livestock and competition for game species and endeavored to exterminate them. The Massachusetts Bay Colony offered the first bounty on wolves as early as 1630. Aggressive trapping and hunting by the fur trade also took their toll on many carnivore species including fox, bobcats, and lynx.

Pushing westward in the early to mid-1800s, settlers killed carnivores as well as bison, elk, and other large grazing animals to clear the land for domestic livestock and farming. Ranchers, bounty hunters, and professional hunters and trappers killed millions of coyotes, wolves, bears, and cougars. Large-scale cattle grazing resulted in the widespread depletion of vegetation and the wildlife that consumed it. Without natural prey, the remaining predators were forced to prey on livestock to survive, which only bolstered predator eradication campaigns.

In more recent years, lethal damage control programs have expanded across North America. For example, more than 2.5 million animals, including wolves, bears, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and cougars, are killed by the U.S government each year, through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program. Some carnivores are also killed to boost “game” stocks for hunters and to protect corporate-owned timberlands. Private interests and government agents have employed an array of lethal techniques – ranging from gunning from helicopters, denning (killing pups in their dens with a fumigant), the use of steel-jaw leghold traps and strangulation neck snares, poisoning with compound 1080 or cyanide gas, baiting, hounding, shooting, clubbing, and trapping – to kill an astonishing number of carnivores. Such methods are terribly inhumane and generally doomed to fail as they don’t address the root causes of conflicts or provide long-lasting solutions.

In addition, massive destruction and fragmentation of critical wildlife habitat by logging, mining, oil, real estate, and other development have resulted in dramatic declines in some species. As a result of human encroachment into wildlife habitat, conflicts between carnivores and humans have arisen – with wildlife often paying a fatal price. Trophy hunting and trapping continue to take a grim toll on native carnivores across the continent.

This relentless war on carnivores has pushed some species to the brink of extinction. For example, wolves and grizzly bears have largely disappeared from much of their historic range. Those carnivore populations that still persist remain in small and isolated populations. Other carnivore populations, such as bald eagles, plummeted after exposure from pollutants such as the pesticide, DDT. Still others, like coyotes, managed to survive despite onslaughts by hunters, trappers, ranchers, and government agents. As a result, federal and state governments, landowners, hunters, and trappers – determined to wipe coyotes out – have continued an all out assault on the wild canine.

Carnivores play an integral role maintaining healthy ecosystems by regulating deer and elk, as well as smaller mammal, populations. Most of these species need large areas of land to meet all of their food and habitat requirements. For this reason, carnivores, especially wide-ranging species such as grizzly bears, are considered “umbrella” species. By protecting large wild areas for predators to live and roam, we are, in effect, saving a place for many more animal and plant species. Yet, sustained lethal control, as well as trophy hunting of some of these species, have had a devastating impact on the environmental health of the North American continent. Biologists have found that many large native carnivores are “keystone species,” and play a pivotal role in maintaining ecological integrity and preserving species diversity. The disappearance of a keystone species triggers the loss of other local species, and the intricate connections among the remaining residents begin to unravel. Species losses cascade and multiply throughout the ecosystem in a “domino effect.” In the words of conservation biologist John Terborgh, “Our current knowledge about the natural processes that maintain biodiversity suggests a crucial and irreplaceable role of top predators. The absence of top predators appears to lead inexorably to ecosystem simplification accompanied by a rush of extinctions.”

It is troubling carnivores have not received adequate protections even after intensive campaigns by conservation and animal welfare groups. Many organizations advocating for carnivores have raised critical awareness about the plight these species. Despite such laudable efforts, carnivores continue to face ruthless persecution. It seems little has changed for carnivores since settlers arrived in the New World.

To see more about GOVERNMENT KILLING SPREE AGAINST WILDLIFE

Trapping may be the most inhumane method used by federal and state agencies, as well as private commercial interests, for killing carnivore wildlife. It is highly unregulated with few restrictions on types of traps that can be set or the number of animals that can trapped. Most states do not require trappers to check traps for 2-4 days, allowing the animal to suffer. Animals frequently sustain severe injuries from traps. When not killed outright by the trap, animals can endure physiological trauma, dehydration, exposure to severe weather, and predation by other animals. Trappers usually club, suffocate, or strangle the animal because a bullet hole and blood would reduce a pelt’s value. Most traps are notoriously indiscriminate, capturing almost any animal who triggers them. Non-target species found in traps include endangered species, raptors, dogs, cats, and humans. Even if released, they may die from injuries or reduced ability to hunt or forage for food.

The most commonly used trap is the jaw leghold trap, a restraining device with spring-loaded steel jaws that clamp on an animal’s foot or leg when triggered. Leghold traps can cause severe swelling, lacerations, fractures, self-mutilation, limb amputation, and death. A desperate animal will often try to chew off a limb to escape. Snares are primitive wire nooses that are designed to tighten around an animal’s leg or neck. While small victims of neck snares may become unconscious in ten minutes from strangulation, larger animals may struggle for days. Conibear traps consist of two metal frames hinged at the center and powered by two torsion springs to create a scissor-like action. The traps are supposed to kill animals instantly by snapping their spinal column at the base of the neck. But, the devices kill fewer than 15 percent of trapped animals quickly. Many animals die slow, painful deaths as their abdomens, heads, or other body parts are crushed.