President Trump has opened the door to the inhumane killing of predators on national wildlife refuges in Alaska. Last summer the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a rule protecting Alaskan carnivores, such as grizzly bears and wolves, against “intensive predator management” (read: aggressive and sustained killing). But despite massive public opposition, and at the insistence of the National Rifle Association, Congress passed a Congressional Review Act resolution that Trump has now signed into law that repeals the rule. Not only is this incompatible with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s conservation mission, the CRA states that agencies can never again issue a rule that is “substantially the same” as the one repealed. The killing methods that would have been prevented include killing animals with steel leghold traps, using airplanes to scout grizzly bears and their cubs and then shooting them in the same day, and killing wolves and wolf pups in their dens. The goal of such brutal tactics is to try to allow game populations, such as moose and caribou, so hunters have an easier time bagging big antlers. Makes you wonder if we can still call these places “wildlife refuges.”
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