Call Comes After Revelations Agency Beheading Pups with Shovels

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, some of the nation’s leading conservation and animal welfare organizations called on the federal government to stop killing coyotes and foxes at their den sites. The coalition urged a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, called Wildlife Services, to cease all “denning” activities – the practice of killing pups at or in their dens – after the groups learned the agency was using shovels to behead young coyote pups or breaking the pups’ necks. Wildlife Services kills tens of thousands of animals each year for livestock growers, farmers interests.

“Wildlife Services is committing crimes against animals that make Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels look like doggy day care,” said Brian Vincent, Communications Director for the Oregon-based Big Wildlife. “The agency must end these barbaric, grisly practices and hold their employees accountable,” he added.

The organizations also urged Wildlife Services to stop burying burning cartridges – that contain a deadly mixture of sodium nitrate and charcoal – in dens. Intended to asphyxiate animals, the highly combustible material is likely burning pups alive.

“Wildlife Services creates miniature gas chambers all over Western lands to kill wildlife. This is abhorrent and unacceptable. Killing innocent pups must stop,” said Vincent.

The groups pressed Wildlife Services to abandon its historically aggressive lethal control campaign against coyotes. Instead, the coalition said, the agency should employ non-lethal methods such as guard animals, fences, and pens to prevent conflicts with wildlife. It also urged the Attorneys General in several states where Wildlife Services kills coyote pups to investigate whether cruelty to animals laws have been violated. Big Wildlife had sent such a request to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson but never received a response.

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