NDOW SUED OVER UNNECESSARY KILLING OF MOUNTAIN LIONS, COYOTES AND RAVENS

NEVADA BOARD OF WILDLIFE COMMISSIONERS AND NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE SUED OVER UNNECESSARY KILLING OF MOUNTAIN LIONS, COYOTES AND RAVENS.
Nevada’s Predator Killing Program subject of new lawsuit:

A lawsuit filed June 1, 2018 takes aim (literally) at a 15-year long, multi-million dollar program that has led to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of coyotes and ravens and dozens of mountain lions under the guise of predator management.

Originally touted as a way to “bring back Nevada’s deer herds” when passed by the Nevada Legislature in 2001, it has utterly failed to live up to its prediction. Nevada mule deer numbers have been relatively flat for 15 years with little fluctuation.

A comprehensive analysis of the history and current status of the mule deer in Nevada, published by the Nevada Department of Wildlife inn 2004, shows clearly that complex habitat/environmental issues are the largest determinants in how mule deer do in our state.

This lawsuit seeks to address this matter in court where facts and numbers do matter and where mythology and old wives tales that led up to this misguided legislation are not recognized.

Created by a small group of sportsmen and a Las Vegas legislator, a $3 surcharge was added to each tag application, the proceeds to be used for predator management. Some sportsmen and the legislator had the erroneous idea that Nevada’s deer herds which were declining in numbers were “being killed by predators”. The legislation creating this program was touted as being needed to “save Nevada’s deer herds”.

Over the past 15 years, over $6 million has been spent on the program, much of it to kill the targeted species with no demonstrable “benefit” to mule deer, bighorn sheep or sage grouse.

At the 2015 Legislature, those same sportsmen, frustrated with the failure of the program to magically create more deer and convinced that not enough killing had been done by NDOW, got the Legislature to pass an 80% lethal mandate, forcing NDOW to dream up more so-called projects to spend more than $500,000/year killing lions, coyotes and ravens.

The 2017 Nevada Legislature removed the 80% mandate but the governor vetoed the bill.

Now it is time to bring this sordid mess into the courtroom where facts still matter and where specious arguments, based on mythology, ideology and old-wives tales can be examined in the light of day and in the face of data and science.

Here is a link to the full complaint: