The federal government's wildlife damage control program is
based on outdated science and indiscriminate tools that kill
many non-target animals, including protected species, according
to a lawsuit filed Monday by WildEarth Guardians, a Colorado-
based environmental group. The focus of the lawsuit is a little-
known arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called Wildlife
Services that has long specialized in killing animals that are
deemed to pose a threat to agriculture, the public and more
recently the environment. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District
Court in Las Vegas, asks that the agency's activities be halted
until it prepares a new, more comprehensive environmental impact
statement. The suit also calls for a halt to its aerial gunning
of predators in federally designated wilderness areas. "It's
high time for the federal court to take a hard look at Wildlife
Services' slaughter of the nation's wildlife on public and
private land with our tax dollars," said Wendy Keefover,
director of carnivore protectio