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KUNC is among the founding partners of the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration of public media stations that serve the Western states of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Judge Says Fed Agency Killed Millions Of Wild Animals While Ignoring Important Science

Public Domain / Richard Spencer

A U.S. District Court sided with wildlife advocates this week. It ruled that a federal agency ignored scientific studies that did not support its justification for killing animals.

Each year, millions of wild animals are removed or killed by the Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services on behalf of ranchers, farmers, homeowners, and airport operators.

Andrea Santarsiere is with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit in the State of Idaho.

"What the court found is that Wild Services essentially cherry-picked the scientific studies that justified their program, and ignored all of the studies that said their wildlife killing may be ineffective," said Santarsiere.  

For example, Santarsiere said there’s a growing body of studies that say removing native predators like wolves or coyotes is not effective in boosting deer or elk populations.

Other federal agencies were critical of Wildlife Services methods including the Bureau of Land Management. Santarsiere said they cited the lack of scientific review, "And wildlife services failed to respond to those criticisms."

The court will hold another round of briefings to decide what will happen moving forward. This will affect wildlife management across the country. 

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2020 Wyoming Public Radio. To see more, visit .

Maggie Mullen is a fifth generation Wyomingite, born and raised in Casper. She is currently a Masters candidate in American Studies and will defend her thesis on female body hair in contemporary American culture this May. Before graduate school, she earned her BA in English and French from the University of Wyoming. Maggie enjoys writing, cooking, her bicycle, swimming in rivers and lakes, and most any dog.