Wildlife Services kills a family dog -- we need to kill that useless agency

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services is a horribly misnamed agency. It doesn't provide services for wildlife, it kills them. Needlessly. Expensively. Wastefully. And not just wildlife: family pets also.

Recently the McCurtain family in Gresham, Oregon suffered the heartrending loss of their dog, Maggie. Wildlife Services killed Maggie. Probably illegally (the family is suing Wildlife Services). Definitely incompetently.

Predator Defense tells the sorry tale.

Imagine a federal wildlife agency setting deadly "instant-kill" traps within 45 feet of your suburban back yard where your children play. Imagine that one of those government-set traps kills your beloved dog and no one returns for the trap, or to even say they're sorry.

This sounds like the kind of government abuse and secrecy one would see exposed on "60 Minutes," and it should be. However, that is not the case in Gresham, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, where the government has made every effort to intentionally hide such a tragedy.

The agency responsible? Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal, Plant, and Health Inspection Services.

Wild Earth Guardians has exposed Wildlife Services for the incompetent, dangerous, environmentally clueless animal killing machine that this government agency is. Read "War on Wildlife," or at least the two page executive summary. 

There's also a good overview of what Wildlife Services does wrong on the Predator Defense web site.

But why read? Watch a You Tube video.

Doug and Denise McCurtain movingly describe how their beloved family dog, Maggie, was killed in their own back yard by Wildlife Services. Lots of statistics can be cited about how Wildlife Services recklessly kills birds, coyotes, and other animals (including pets) for no good reason. Those facts are important.

The McCurtain's experience, though, cuts through the abstractions. Here's the down to earth truth about how cruel Wildlife Services is: "Maggie's Story."

Watch it, then do what Predator Defense suggests: email "60 Minutes" at [email protected] and ask them to do a story on Maggie's killing and Wildlife Services. If we can cast enough light on Wildlife Services, hopefully it will be defunded as a useless agency.

 

Comments

[tAo]

this is absolutely terrible. everyone who reads about this, should try to speak out about it. make one hell of a big fuss.

its another sickening heart-breaking example of demonic toxic government. the people responsible for this madness should be fired and then hanged. really.

i encourage all readers to speak out about this. don't let these bastards get away with this kind of murderous incompetance.

[chris phillips]

well the owners need to stop letting their dogs run around town. People are so stupid and lazy these days. Drop the tv remote walk up to the tv for a change. Your dogs are like your kids you stop watching them and go to your tv your kid runs in the road gets killed you blame it one who was driving. If this was china a kid would have been ran over 5 times before help came.there actually a video of this on YouTube.