To better protect wilderness, contractors with the US Department of Agriculture's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service or APHIS shot 65 unvaccinated invasive cattle in 2022 from helicopters on the Gila National Forest and nineteen so far in 2023. But, it's hardly an easy alliance between preservationists and an agency like APHIS that killed 1.75 million creatures in 2021 including 400,000 native species like wolves, cougars, bears and bobcats.
In 2022 We, the People killed 216 feral cattle through APHIS but we also shot, trapped or poisoned over 56,000 coyotes or about 153 every day.
Funded by the 2018 farm bill and reported for 2022 the rogue agency killed 26,371 beavers, over 14,000 red winged blackbirds, 478 armadillos, 244 badgers, 450 black bears, 515 bobcats, 820 red-crested cardinals, 204 cougars, nearly 20,000 brown-headed cowbirds, 4,300 American crows, nearly 11,000 white-tailed deer, over 19,000 mourning doves, some 4,000 ducks including those that feed on invasive zebra mussels, over 6,000 egrets, 540 American kestrels, over 3,000 foxes, some 20,000 gulls, 1,200 jackrabbits, over 2,000 hawks, 600 herons, 3,000 iguanas, 74 javelinas, 1,182 yellow-bellied marmots, 1,700 muskrats, over 8,500 black-tailed and Gunnison prairie dogs, nearly 8,300 raccoons, almost 11,000 common ravens, 4,400 striped skunks, 1.2 million European starlings, 1,600 mute swans, 137,000 feral swine, 440 wild turkeys, 380 snapping turtles, over 14,000 vultures, 220 wolves and 2,300 woodchucks.
Get the full list linked here.
ip image: a coyote drinks within range of a trail camera.
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