Letter: Berkley helped taxpayers, wildlife

Tuesday, June 29, 1999 | 10:21 a.m.

Specifically, the amendment sought to cut funding for a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that uses traps, poisons, and aerial gunning to kill mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, and other predators as a direct subsidy to livestock ranchers in the West.

It's one thing for ranchers to protect livestock from predators. It's another thing for taxpayers to be forced to finance the killing of the public's wildlife, often on public lands, for the benefit of a relatively small number of ranchers.

What's worse, the killing typically does not target individual "problem" animals; rather, it is indiscriminate, with USDA personnel killing any animals unlucky enough to step into the traps or ingest the poisons they set out.

Regrettably, this amendment narrowly failed, due to a major effort by the livestock industry to protect this subsidy.

We will try again, however. And we are grateful for Rep. Berkley's support of protecting the interests of taxpayers and wildlife from this wasteful and inhumane government program.

WAYNE PACELLE, Senior vice president, Humane Society of the United States