End Wildlife Service's Poisoning of the Prairies!
Prairie Protection Colorado (PPC) has filed a lawsuit against the USDA Wildlife Services to halt their practice of entering into contracts with local jurisdictions in urban areas to annihilate prairie dogs with cruel and inhumane poisons. Currently, Wildlife Services is planning on poisoning approximately 200 acres of prairie dogs in Commerce City's Second Creek Open Space with phosphine gas. The Animal Damage Control Act specifically excludes Wildlife Services from killing "urban rodents." Commerce City is urban and prairie dogs are rodents.
Wildlife Services is a federal agency tasked with killing wildlife. During the past decade, Wildlife Services has slaughtered more than 34 million animals in the US according to their own records (which underrepresent the actual numbers being killed). Each year, they kill tens of thousands of prairie dogs. In 2018 alone, they poisoned 47,547 burrows, most of them located in Colorado, and killed 17,739 outright, mostly by rifle fire. Wildlife Services exterminated 2.6 million animals in 2018 alone and 1.5 million of those were rapidly dwindling native species.
This photo was taken at Cherry Creek State Park in 2017 when Wildlife Services was contracted by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to poison hundreds of prairie dogs with phosphine gas. This prairie dog was consumed by a non-targeted species who suffered the same fate:
Wildlife Services is able to sell their extermination campaigns for rock bottom prices to both state and local authorities since federal grants subsidize their charges. In addition, Wildlife Services claims all of the information rights from the local governments allowing officials to avert any inquiries from their constituents to the USDA. This has made it possible for Commerce City to answer any citizen and media inquiries by stating "we are restoring Second Creek" instead of admitting that they hired Wildlife Services to inhumanely poison 200 acres of a vibrant prairie community.
If you believe that the killing machine known as Wildlife Services should be abolished and that they need to stop poisoning wildlife we need your assistance. Lawsuits are expensive and require funding to hold the killers of wildlife accountable. PPC's goal for this 200 acres is to stop the poisoning. PPC intends to use this lawsuit to put an end to Wildlife Services engaging in contracts with local governments in urban areas that poison prairie dogs and the communities they support.
Read our Lawsuit Here:
https://prairieprotectioncolorado.org/ppc-vs-usda-wildlife-services
Your donation will go to helping us educate the public about Wildlife Services and their role in poisoning keystone species while holding them legally accountable for their violations under federal law.
Thank you for your consideration.
For the Prairie Dogs!!!
