From: Defenders of Wildlife/www.defenders.org

The 23 Idaho wolves shot from a helicopter last month were just the latest in a decades-long trail of carnage and indiscriminate bloodshed. And Idaho Wildlife Services admitted to their plan only after all the wolves were dead.

It has to stop.

Of the literally millions of animals killed in recent years by the Wildlife Services agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wolves are a favored target.

Wolves are killed for the convenience of ranchers and hunters. In most instances, essential non-lethal methods are never tried. And the slaughter is funded in part by you.

From the agency’s own records, an accounting of more than 500 wolves killed in one year alone reads like something from a horror movie:

•64 wolves gunned down from helicopters
•316 killed in foothold traps
•30 killed using neck snares
•37 shot from fixed wing aircraft

These were all deliberate killings. Two more wolves were “accidentally” killed by cyanide poison left for other “target” animals.

Wildlife Services is currently being audited by the USDA Office of the Inspector General. But the killing continues.

Wildlife Services has operated for years as killers for hire serving private and state interests, using cruel and indiscriminate methods, covering up gross errors, and resisting all calls for accountability.