Number: 1993-08
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Animal Damage Control Act of 1931, as amended, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized and directed to control predators and the damage they cause; and
WHEREAS, public support for the Animal Damage Control (ADC) program has waned significantly, due to its apparent insensitivity to changing public and scientific opinion which views predators as an important and valued resource and an integral element of healthy ecosystems; its continued inadequately monitored practice of killing non-targeted, as well as targeted wildlife, including some threatened and endangered species listed and protected under the Endangered Species Act; its continuing emphasis on elimination of predators rather than managing prescriptively for only those depredating animals; its continued reliance on lethal control techniques, even in the light of new research on non-lethal methods that are demonstrating effectiveness, and its discharge of responsibilities that amount to a multi-million dollar subsidy to farming and ranching interests during a period of fiscal austerity and a burgeoning federal deficit; and
WHEREAS, because a 1990 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) on the ADC program has never been finalized, the ADC continues to operate under an inadequate and outdated 1979 Environmental Impact Statement; and
WHEREAS, the ADC program attempts to operate independently of direct interaction with other federal natural resource agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); and
WHEREAS, the ADC program employs approximately 900 people and has an annual appropriation of approximately $30 million; and
WHEREAS, because more than four-fifths of these monies is spent in the West in control of predators as a result of pressure from the ranching and farming community;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 11-14, 1993, in Crystal City, Virginia, calls on the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to immediately review and reform the Agriculture Department’s ADC program during the next two years, with specific emphasis on:
1. Establishing policy to evaluate the use of non-lethal rather than lethal measures to control predators when such measures can be applied effectively and efficiently; 2. Revising and completing the 1990 Draft EIS; 3. Installing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the managing authority for the ADC program to ensure that management decisions are based on the best scientific expertise available; 4. Providing for greater public involvement and participation in all of ADC’s decision making processes; and 5. Reviewing and revising the ADC’s original 1931 statutory charter to make it consistent with prevailing public and scientific opinion; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior and the Office of Management and Budget review the expenditures under this program and assess the justification for continuing the ADC program; and, if the program is continued, making it financially self supporting through collection of fees from those who benefit from the program; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National Wildlife Federation urges prompt Congressional oversight of the ADC program and revision of the law if administrative reform is not accomplished within two years.