MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Plenty of federal agencies protect wildlife on the public's behalf. But one federal program, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is allowed to kill native wild animals at the request of ranchers and livestock owners - even those protected by the Endangered Species Act. It's called Wildlife Services, and agency representatives told NPR that these federal employees only kill when the animals prey on livestock. But NPR's investigations team obtained records that show that that is not always the case. Here to tell us more are NPR's Chiara Eisner and Nick McMillan. Good morning.
CHIARA EISNER, BYLINE: Good morning.
NICK MCMILLAN, BYLINE: Hi.
MARTIN: Chiara, let me start with you. I don't think a lot of people have heard of this program who don't live in these areas. So what's the history of this program, and how big is it now?
EISNER: Yeah, the program does keep a low profile, but it has been around for almost a hundred years. Back in the 1930s, Congress gave the federal government authority to kill wild animals for ranchers. And this was way before the Endangered Species Act had been passed and before scientists knew what they know now about the damage that removing predators can have on a larger ecosystem. The program has a budget of around $286 million. Employees also keep birds away from airports, and they vaccinate wildlife against different diseases. But killing native predators and other animals to avoid conflict with livestock is still a big part of the program. Wildlife Services killed more than 370,000 native animals just in 2023.
MARTIN: Wow, 370,000 native animals in just one year - that sounds like a lot. So where is all this happening? Is it happening on private land, on public land?
EISNER: It's both. So many livestock owners pay the government a small fee to let their livestock graze on state and national forest and parkland. And Wildlife Services - they can kill those wild animals there as well as on the ranchers' private property. And conservationists I spoke with said they did not think that that was correct. Here's Lizzy Pennock. She's a lawyer at WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit.
LIZZY PENNOCK: We have these wilderness areas, which - like, if wildlife has a hard time anywhere, it shouldn't be in a wilderness area. That should be where they can be OK.
EISNER: That nonprofit petitioned the federal government this summer to pass rules that would forbid Wildlife Services from killing wild animals on public property.
MARTIN: So let me bring Nick McMillan in now. You were able to obtain and analyze some records from the program in Montana. What did they show you?
MCMILLAN: Right. So we obtained thousands of work tasks from the USDA that covered a span of three years, and these are files that Wildlife Service employees fill out after they respond to calls about conflict with wildlife. One of our main findings was that there were about 11,000 wild animals killed in locations where there had been no damage to livestock recorded. Most of these animals were coyotes, and we saw in these records that 61 were killed under four hours by federal employees from a helicopter. One lawyer we spoke with called that a, quote, "bloodbath."
MARTIN: So Chiara, you talked to a lot of ranchers. How do they feel about this program?
EISNER: There are two different opinions. I talked to one man - Andrew Bardwell - in Montana, in Augusta, and he helps manage the LF Ranch. That's a massive, 35,000-acre property. He said he's asked Wildlife Services to remove a couple of threatened grizzly bears from his property. And it was raining when I got in his truck to take a tour of his land, just a couple hours' drive south of Glacier National Park.
ANDREW BARDWELL: This foothill country right through here - it's great habitat, and we're actually proud of that. If the bears like it, something's working here, right? And we're sure not trying to get rid of all the bears.
EISNER: Bardwell says he's seeing more grizzly bears than usual in the area, and it can be hard for him to control them by himself. He's got a rifle in his truck, but he doesn't use it. He calls in Wildlife Services.
BARDWELL: If it took a hard turn, and there were no options for removal of problem animals, it would get incredibly expensive, then.
EISNER: And the other opinion I heard from Hilary Zaranek, and she's part of a family that's lived in Montana for decades. They've got more than one ranch in southwestern Montana. She said that while she has seen a couple of Wildlife Services employees work responsibly, a lot of them go to, quote, "extreme liberties" to take out wild animals.
HILARY ZARANEK: Wildlife Services has very much taken the approach of be buddy-buddy with the ranching community, which means do what the ranching community wants, which is kill stuff.
MARTIN: OK. Nick, before we let you go, even ranchers have different views of the way the agency is conducting itself at this point. What did the agency say when you presented your findings to them?
MCMILLAN: Right, well, we got no comment back. We asked for an interview. We were turned down. In an emailed statement, the agency said they manage wildlife sustainably.
MARTIN: That is Chiara Eisner and Nick McMillan. Chiara, Nick, thank you so much for joining us.
EISNER: Thank you, Michel.
MCMILLAN: Thank you.
MARTIN: And I know that we can hear and read more of your reporting at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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