May 24, 1999

United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: FY 2000 Agriculture Appropriations Bill/Support the DeFazio (D-OR)-Bass (R-NH) Wildlife Services Amendment

Dear Representative:

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is the nonpartisan, political voice of the national environmental community. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records and other important actions of Members of Congress on legislation that affects the quality and integrity of the natural environment. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the press.

This week the House will be voting on the FY 2000 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. During consideration of this bill, Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Charles Bass (R-NH) will offer an amendment to cut $7 million from Wildlife Services (WS) operations budget in order to bring reform to the livestock protection program. LCV urges you to support this amendment in order to end the unnecessary destruction of the nation's wildlife.

The WS program was created through the enactment of the Animal Damage Control Act in 1931 and for the past sixty-plus years it has operated as a predator killing service for ranchers. The livestock protection program relies almost exclusively on lethal control measures despite the fact that effective, non-lethal controls are available. Although the Act has not undergone a formal reauthorization, Congress has provided directives in recent years requesting that the WS employ non-lethal means as the method of choice. However, Wildlife Services' own figures reveal that little attention has been paid to these congressional mandates as the number of animals killed each year remains constant or has increased.

The lethal control measures kill thousands of unintended wild animals annually. In fact, rare, threatened and endangered species are frequently killed because of the indiscriminate nature of Wildlife Services' lethal controls. Last December, an endangered gray wolf was poisoned by Wildlife Services outside of Yellowstone National Park on public land. This is the third protected wolf that has been killed by WS poisons in as many years.

The DeFazio-Bass amendment eliminates only about one-quarter of the operations budget and specifically targets the livestock protection program. It does not jeopardize the valuable portions of WS operations, such as reducing bird strikes with airplanes and controlling the spread of brown tree snakes to Hawaii.

LCV's Political Advisory Committee will consider including votes on this amendment in compiling LCV's 1999 Scorecard. Thank you for your consideration of this issue. If you need more information, please call Betsy Loyless in my office at 202/785-8683.

Sincerely,

Deb Callahan
President