State wildlife advocates today announced the launch of Washington Wildlife First, a new nonprofit dedicated to reforming Washington’s wildlife management agencies.
While other environmental groups also believe in the importance of state agency reform, Washington Wildlife First is one of the only organizations in the country dedicated solely to that purpose.
“The Department of Fish and Wildlife has a solemn duty to protect and preserve the state’s fish and wildlife, which it manages in trust on behalf of all of us,” said Seattle area resident Claire Loebs Davis, managing partner of the law firm Animal & Earth Advocates, and board president of Washington Wildlife First.
“But Department management is dominated by an outdated mindset that does not reflect the values of the people of Washington,” Davis said. “Its leadership has sacrificed the interests of current and future Washingtonians to cater to the demands of commercial interests, powerful politicians and tiny factions of the hunting and fishing community.”
Washington Wildlife First contends that the Department often ignores the recommendations of its own scientists, allows the hunting and fishing of some species at unsustainable levels, promotes unethical hunting practices, and kills wildlife too quickly in response to purported conflicts.
We kill state-endangered wolves for preying on livestock that wander our public lands largely unsupervised, and cougar for trying to scratch out a living as we continue to encroach on their wild homes. Department management views killing as the first option, rather than a last resort. That has to change.
Washington Wildlife First launched www.wawildlifefirst.org last week. It is registered as a Washington nonprofit and has applied for federal tax-exempt status.
