Among the main concerns is how usage of components like cyanide bombs are impacting the state’s mountain lion and black bear populations.

By Rhonda Fanning & Shelly BrisbinFebruary 20, 2025 10:16 amAgriculture & Animals, Texas Standard Original

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The lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity says USDA trapping and killing practices are impacting the populations of mountain lions and black bears in Texas.

A lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity seeks to stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture from trapping and killing wildlife in Texas.

The suit filed this week in the San Antonio Federal Court also wants a reevaluation of the USDA’s Wildlife Services Program based on updated science. Among the concerns is the impact on the state’s population of mountain lions and black bears.

Talia DiBenedetto is a carnivore conservation staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, and she joined the show to talk about the issue. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Tell us about the Wildlife Services killing program at issue here. What is it intended to accomplish and how does it work?

Tala DiBenedetto: So this federal program spends tons of taxpayer money every year on the slaughter of the nation’s beloved wildlife, largely on behalf of private industry.

In Texas, Wildlife Services continues to kill native, ecologically important wildlife, relying on woefully outdated environmental assessments up to a decade old despite new, abundant, critical information on the impacts – in particular, to these sensitive mountain lion and black bear populations in the state.

Give us a sense of the kinds of practices used by USDA to control wildlife or kill wildlife.

Wildlife Services engages in a number of cruel and controversial methods to kill wildlife. This includes strangulation, snares, body-gripping traps which trap animals who then are stuck for hours and hours on end without access to food and water, who are stressed and struggle to get free, which they can harm themselves in that process, or even try to chew with their own limbs.

Texas also has the highest use of M-44 cyanide bombs in the country. This method is particularly dangerous.

Basically, these are devices that are inserted into the ground. And when animals bite down on them, it shoots cyanide powder up to five feet in the air. And these devices have killed countless dogs. They have harmed people and killed plenty of non-target animals.

Is your lawsuit’s contention that the program is simply killing more animals than necessary and needs to be changed? Or do you want the entire program shut down?

So our lawsuit, specifically, is looking at the agency’s killing based on flawed and outdated environmental analysis.

And so because this analysis was done so long ago and so much information has come out in the past decade on the state of mountain lions in Texas, as well as possible harms to black bears, the agency shouldn’t continue to kill wildlife relying on this faulty, outdated information.

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Well, give us some examples about what’s faulty. I mean, you mentioned you’re specifically concerned about the limited population of mountain lions and black bears.

But what about mountain lions? The state just last year established the first trapping restrictions and banned canned hunting. How does that USDA program affect mountain lions?

So the restriction on trapping only sets a 36-hour trap check. So Texas is the only state with a mountain lion population where mountain lions aren’t managed, meaning they can be killed at any time in any quantities. They don’t have the benefits of monitoring or reporting requirements.

And many studies have come out since the preparation of these last environmental assessments that indicate that the current rate of mountain lion-killing in Texas isn’t sustainable and that one resident population of mountain lions in particular – the Southern resident population – is in immediate risk of local extinctions.

Well, the changes you advocate would impact the way ranchers deal with predators that pose a threat to livestock. If your lawsuit is successful, what happens to those ranchers? And what about their concerns?

So some of the studies we point to in our complaint show that where mountain lions were studied, in particular in one area of Texas, had plenty of livestock available, and yet livestock made up little to none of the individual diets of mountain lions, despite that availability. And that predation on livestock depends on a number of other factors, including, importantly, local ranching practices.

And further, there are plenty of effective nonlethal ways to prevent predation without engaging in this rampant, cruel killing and harming the environment.

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By 

Ian Mohr

Published Feb. 19, 2025, 5:40 p.m. ET64 Comments

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A duck hunting trip attended by Donald Trump Jr. is reportedly under investigation in Italy after local activists’ feathers were ruffled.

According to an Italian newspaper, the Venice Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation that stemmed from a legal complaint made by Green politician Andrea Zanoni.

President Trump’s son is not personally named in the complaint, Newsweek reported, but the alleged incident came to light after a video was posted by Don Jr.’s website, Field Ethos, showing a hunting trip near Venice that involved the real estate scion.

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The video showed a bunch of downed birds, including one unusually colored duck that allegedly could be a Ruddy Shelduck, a rare species in Europe.

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Don Jr.’s spokesperson, previously told Page Six of the hubbub: “Don and his group had all the proper permits and were hunting in a legally allowed area, where there were countless other hunting groups present.”

The rep added: “While it’s unclear whether this single duck was unintentionally shot by someone in Don’s hunting group, another hunting group or killed in a different manner and retrieved by the groups hunting dog, Don takes following all rules, regulations and conservation on his hunts very seriously and plans on fully cooperating with any investigation.”

Animal rights activist Zanoni has reportedly said: “It doesn’t matter if the duck was killed by a dog or another hunter since the law also applies to anyone found in possession of a protected species that has been hunted. And Don Jr. showed the world in the video that the duck was in his possession.”

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Massimo Buconi, the president of the Italian Hunting Federation, reportedly told the Guardian: “At a glance it looks like a Ruddy Shelduck. I don’t know if it’s protected in America, but in Europe, and in Italy, it is protected. You cannot hunt it.”

Newsweek reported that the investigation is ongoing.

The hunting video showed a group of men, including Don Jr., 47, popping out in camo and firing at some ducks above.

The hunting trip apparently took place near a lagoon outside Venice, where Page Six exclusively reported Don Jr. took his girlfriend, Bettina Anderson, on an Italian getaway in December.64

What do you think? Post a comment.

In 2019, Don Jr. also fired up controversy when he allegedly shot a rare species of endangered sheep in Mongolia — but he got a permit retroactively issued.