Regional
The meat industryâs war on wildlife
Your taxes fund an obscure government program that kills millions of wild animals to benefit Big Ag.
A red fox killed with a cyanide bomb. A gray wolf gunned down from an airplane. A jackrabbit caught in a neck snare. These are just a few of the 1.45 million animals poisoned, shot, and trapped last year by the euphemistically named Wildlife Services, a little-known but particularly brutal program of the US Department of Agriculture.
The program kills wildlife for many reasons, including poisoning birds to prevent them from striking airplanes and destroying beavers that sneak onto golf courses. But one of the primary purposes of the mostly taxpayer-funded $286 million program is to serve as the meat and dairy industriesâ on-call pest control service.
âWe were the hired gun of the livestock industry,â said Carter Niemeyer, who worked in Wildlife Services and related programs from 1975 to 2006. Niemeyer specialized in killing and trapping predators like coyotes and wolves that were suspected of killing farmed cattle and sheep.
Wildlife Services has also killed hundreds of endangered gray wolves, threatened grizzly bears, and highly endangered Mexican gray wolves, often at the behest of the livestock industry and enabled by exemptions from the Endangered Species Act.
The top three species Wildlife Services killed in 2023 were European starlings, feral pigs, and coyotes, according to data released last month. How these animals were targeted â from shooting coyotes to poisoning birds â has prompted Congress to fund nonlethal initiatives within the program and conservation groups to call for sweeping changes to how Wildlife Services operates. The USDA didnât respond to several questions sent via email.
âGod was our only witness out there,â Niemeyer said about agents killing animals in the field. âYou just hope that everybody makes [choices] morally and ethically acceptable and as humane as possible.â
To Wildlife Servicesâ credit, the vast majority of its work entails nonlethally scaring animals off. Controversy, though, has dogged the program for decades, as critics like Niemeyer and other former employees say much of its predator killing is unnecessary, imprecise, and inhumane. Conservation groups say itâs ecologically destructive, as such predators are crucial to ecosystem health and biodiversity.
Predator hysteria, explained
Adrian Treves, an environmental science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the origins of todayâs rampant predator killing can be found in Americaâs early European settlers, who brought with them the mentality that wolves were âsuperpredators,â posing a dangerous threat to humans. âWeâve been fed this story that the eradication of wolves was necessary for livestock production,â he said.
Today, Wildlife Servicesâ most controversial work is its killings of coyotes and other predators for the supposed threat they pose to American ranchers and the food supply. But according to a USDA estimate, predation accounted for just 4.7 percent of cattle mortality in 2015. Conservation groups say that figure is exaggerated because itâs based on self-reported data from ranchers and shoddy methodology.
According to an analysis of USDA data by the Humane Society of the United States, predation accounts for only 0.3 percent of cattle mortality. (Disclosure: I worked at the Humane Society of the United States from 2012 to 2017 on unrelated agricultural issues.)
The Humane Society points to several flaws in the USDA data, including the fact that ranchers reported livestock predation from grizzly bears in six states that donât have any grizzly bears. In the Northern Rocky Mountains region, the rate of livestock predation reported by ranchers was 27 times higher than data provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which had actually confirmed livestock deaths by predators.
âWhen I first went to work, there was just sort of this acceptance that if a rancher called and he said he had a coyote problem, we assumed that [he] had a coyote problem,â Niemeyer said. âWe didnât question it. I didnât see a lot of meticulous necropsy work doneâ to investigate the cause of death. The numbers reported to the USDA by ranchers, he now believes, are âexaggerated and embellished.â
The USDA financially compensates ranchers for livestock killed by wolves and some other species, which can create an incentive to attribute farm animal deaths to predators. Robert Gosnell, a former director of New Mexicoâs USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service who administered the stateâs Wildlife Services program, told the Intercept in 2022 that the agencyâs field inspectors had been ordered to report livestock deaths as âwolf killsâ for ranchers. âMy guys in the field were going and rubber-stamping anything those people asked them to,â Gosnell said.
Niemeyer is not opposed to killing individual coyotes or wolves suspected of killing a particular cow or sheep. But much of Wildlife Servicesâ predator control, he said (and another former employee has alleged), is done preventively in an attempt to reduce coyote populations.
âEvery coyote is suspected of potentially being a killer,â Niemeyer said, which he characterizes as coyote or wolf âhysteria.â
Last year, 68,000 coyotes were taken down by a variety of means, including ingestion of Compound 1080, a poison that causes acute pain in the form of heart blockage, respiratory failure, hallucinations, and convulsions.
Thousands more animals are killed as collateral damage. Last year, over 2,000 were killed unintentionally, a consequence of setting out untold numbers of traps and baited cyanide bombs. These devices have also injured a small number of humans and, between 2000 and 2012, killed more than 1,100 dogs.
Some employees have died on the job, and there have even been allegations of orders within the agency to cover up unintentional kills of pets and a federally protected golden eagle.
An irrational bias against predators has made it hard for Americans, and its regulators, to recognize predatorsâ many ecological and social benefits. One study in Wisconsin, for example, found that wild wolf populations keep deer away from roadways, which in turn reduces costly, and sometimes deadly, car crashes.
And killing predators may, counterintuitively, lead to more livestock deaths, Treves said.
Some predator species that experience mass killing events may compensate by having more babies at younger ages. That could partly explain why, when wolf killings increased in some Western states, livestock predation went up, too. And when you wipe out some animals, others may fill the void. Coyotes significantly expanded their range in the 1900s after Americaâs centuries-long wolf extermination campaign.
Finally, Treves said, killing suspected predators from one ranch may simply drive the remaining population into neighboring ranches. One study he co-authored on wolf kills in Michigan found âa three times elevation of risk to livestock on neighboring properties after a farm received lethal control of wolves from Wildlife Services.â
Agricultural sprawl and the war on âinvasiveâ species
Wildlife Services represents yet another example of the USDAâs seeming indifference to animal welfare, but it also highlights a little-known fact of human-wildlife conflict: Most of it stems from agriculture.
Almost half of the contiguous United States is now used for meat, dairy, and egg production â most of it cattle-grazing â which has crowded out wildlife and reduced biodiversity. And whenever wild animals end up on farmland that was once their habitat, they run the risk of being poisoned, shot, or trapped by Wildlife Services.
Thatâs true for animals that find their way onto fruit, vegetable, and nut orchards for a snack, too. But Wildlife Servicesâ primary goal is to protect the interests of livestock producers, USDA public affairs specialist Tanya Espinosa told me in an email â yet another subsidy for an already highly subsidized industry.
While much of the criticism lobbed at Wildlife Services pertains to its treatment of charismatic megafauna like coyotes, bears, and wolves, little attention is paid to the European starling, Wildlife Servicesâ most targeted species. Starlings accounted for a little over half of all animals killed by Wildlife Services, at 814,310 birds.
Starlings, which are targeted because they like to feast on grain at dairy farms and cattle feedlots, are mostly mass-poisoned with DRC-1339, also known as Starlicide, which destroys their heart and kidney function, slowly and excruciatingly killing them over the course of three to 80 hours. Itâs not uncommon for towns across the US to suddenly find thousands of starlings dropping dead out of trees or raining from the sky.
Despite these deaths, starlings receive little sympathy â even from bird enthusiasts â given its status as an âinvasiveâ species, a term often invoked to justify excluding a species from moral consideration, according to Australian ecologist Arian Wallach.
Here too, as with predators, we may be in need of a reframe, or at least a broadening of our often one-track conversation about nonnative species like feral pigs and starlings.
âIn no way does the starling imagine itself as an invasive species â that is a human construction,â said Natalie Hofmeister, an assistant professor of ecology at the University of Michigan and author of the forthcoming book Citizen Starling.
Rethinking mass killing
Despite Wildlife Servicesâ high kill counts, it has expanded its use of nonlethal methods in recent years, including guard dogs, electric fencing, audio/visual deterrents, bird repellent research, and fladry â tying flags along fences, which can scare off some predator species.
âThe last three years have shown a little bit of a turning of the tide for Wildlife Services,â said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director of the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity. âThereâs been more focus on preventing conflicts versus the Band-Aid of killing animals.â
Treves agrees, but is skeptical there will be meaningful change. Most importantly, he wants to see Wildlife Services experimentally test its lethal methods to see if they actually prevent livestock predation.
âI am cynical,â he said. âI am frustrated that this is 20 years of arguing with this agency thatâs entrenched, stubborn, and will not listen to the people who disagree with them.â
There are no easy answers here. While much of Wildlife Servicesâ work is ecologically ruinous and unjustifiably cruel, wild animals do inflict real damage on our food supply. Better management on the part of farmers and ranchers and further USDA investment into nonlethal methods could help. Even better would be to rethink the USDAâs â and the meat industryâs â license to wage war on wildlife.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here!
Sports
Source: Xavi to remain Barça coach after U-turn
Xavi HernĂĄndez has agreed to remain on as Barcelona coach until the end of his contract in 2025, a source has confirmed to ESPN, reversing his decision to step down in the summer.
Xavi, 44, announced in January that he would walk away from the post at the end of the season following a string of bad results, saying that the job had also taken its toll on him mentally.
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However, following a meeting with president Joan Laporta on Wednesday, sources told ESPN that the former Spain international has decided to fulfil his contractual commitment with the Catalan club.
Barcelona vice president Rafa Yuste appeared to confirm the agreement when exiting the meeting late Wednesday night.
"We had a meeting with the coach and the president in which Xavi showed us his commitment," he told reporters. "He is a Barça guy, he is the coach who can lead our project and our young players from the club. I am convinced that he will do a great job, I am very happy for him because he is a great 'culé.'
"I am happy [with Xavi staying] because I always defended the continuity of the project he started two-and-a-half years ago.
"We have not talked [in the meeting] about changes in our team at all. Xavi has shown his enthusiasm and we must support him and his staff to continue with this project."
Xavi was appointed as Barça coach in 2021, leading them to their first league title in four years last season and signing a contract extension until June 30, 2025, with an option for an additional year, in September.
The team ran into difficulties in December and January, though, when they conceded four or more goals in defeats to Girona, Real Madrid, Athletic Club and Villarreal as they were eliminated from the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa del Rey.
That 5-3 loss to Villarreal in January led to Xavi's announcement that he would leave in the summer, but it also sparked a revival on the pitch.
Barça went 13 games unbeaten in all competitions, with Laporta, Yuste and sporting director Deco all expressing their desire for Xavi to continue during that run.
That streak ended last week as Barça lost 4-1 to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League to exit the competition at the quarterfinal stage, missing out on a first semifinal appearance since 2019.
They then lost El ClĂĄsico 3-2 to Real Madrid on Sunday, leaving them 11 points behind the leaders in LaLiga and effectively out of the title race with just six games to be played.
However, sources told ESPN that those results had not affected Barça's position on Xavi and that they still hoped he would reverse his decision.
In addition to the league title won and the faith placed in young players, such as Lamine Yamal and Pau CubarsĂ, Barça's financial situation also played a role in their desire to keep Xavi.
Mexico international Rafa MĂĄrquez, currently in charge of the club's B team, and German coaches Hansi Flick and Thomas Tuchel were all on the short list to come in if a new coach was needed.
On Wednesday, though, the board convened to discuss the coaching situation and reaffirmed their preference for Xavi to continue, with a final agreement then reached later in the day when Xavi met with Laporta.
Regional
The Supreme Courtâs likely to make it more dangerous to be pregnant in a red state
But itâs not yet clear theyâve settled on a rationale for doing so.
A federal law requires most US hospitals to provide an abortion to patients experiencing a medical emergency if an abortion is the proper medical treatment for that emergency. This law is unambiguous, and it applies even in red states with strict abortion bans that prohibit the procedure even when necessary to save a patientâs life or protect their health.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court spent Wednesday morning discussing whether to write a new exception into this federal law, which would permit states to ban abortions even when a patient will die if they do not receive one.
Broadly speaking, the Court seemed to divide into three camps during Wednesdayâs argument in Moyle v. United States. The Courtâs three Democrats, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all argued â quite forcefully at times â that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) means what it says and thus nearly all hospitals must provide emergency abortions.
Meanwhile, the Courtâs right flank â Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch â left no doubt that they will do whatever it takes to permit states to ban medically necessary abortions.
That left three of the Courtâs Republicans, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, in the middle. Kavanaugh and Barrett both asked questions that very much suggest they want states to be able to ban medically necessary abortions. But they also appeared to recognize, at times, that the arguments supporting such an outcome are far from airtight.
Realistically, it is highly unlikely that EMTALA will survive the Courtâs Moyle decision intact. The Court already voted last January to temporarily allow the state of Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, despite EMTALA, while this case was pending before the justices. And Kavanaugh and Barrett have both taken extraordinary liberties with the law in the past when necessary to achieve an anti-abortion outcome.
Still, federal law is crystal clear that states cannot outright ban medically necessary abortions. So there is a chance that two of the Courtâs Republicans will reluctantly conclude that they are bound by the lawâs clear text.
Moyle should be an exceptionally easy case
EMTALA requires hospital emergency rooms that accept Medicare funding to provide âsuch treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical conditionâ of âany individualâ who arrives at the hospitalâs ER with an âemergency medical condition.â Though the law does not specifically mention abortion, it is written in capacious terms. So, if a patient has an âemergency medical conditionâ and the proper treatment to stabilize that condition is an abortion, the hospital must provide an abortion.
Though the law only applies to Medicare-funded hospitals, thatâs nearly all hospitals because Medicare provides health coverage to Americans over the age of 65.
EMTALA conflicts with an Idaho law that bans abortions in nearly all circumstances. While Idaho permits an abortion when ânecessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman,â it does not permit such an abortion if the patient faces a catastrophic health consequence other than death, such as the loss of her uterus.
EMTALA requires emergency rooms to stabilize any patient who is at risk of âserious impairment to bodily functions,â âserious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part,â or other nonfatal consequences that are defined as medical emergencies by EMTALA. So the federal law applies in many cases where the patient is not at risk of death.
Additionally, EMTALA includes a provision saying that state and local laws must give way to the federal requirement to stabilize patients âto the extent that the [state law] directly conflicts with a requirement of this section.â
So, if the Supreme Court were concerned solely with the text of EMTALA, they would hand down a unanimous decision holding that Idahoâs law is preempted by EMTALA, at least to the extent that Idaho prohibits medically necessary abortions. EMTALA does not purport to override most restrictions on abortion, but its explicit text requires hospitals to perform an abortion when necessary to stabilize a patientâs emergency medical condition.
So how did the Republican justices propose getting around EMTALAâs clear text?
Members of the Courtâs Republican majority proposed three possible ways they could try to justify a decision permitting Idaho to ban many medically necessary abortions.
The weakest of these three arguments was proposed by Justice Samuel Alito, author of the Courtâs 2022 decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion. Alito pointed to a provision of EMTALA that requires hospitals to also offer stabilizing care to a pregnant patientâs âunborn childâ if a medical emergency threatens the fetusâs life, though Alito did not really make a legal argument. He just expressed indignation at the very idea that a statute that uses the words âunborn childâ could possibly require abortions in any circumstances.
âIsnât that an odd phrase to put in a statute that imposes a mandate to perform abortions?â Alito asked US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar.
As Prelogar told Alito, EMTALA reconciles the dual obligations it imposes on hospitals to treat both a pregnant patient and the patientâs fetus by only requiring the hospital to âofferâ stabilizing care for both patients â so, in the tragic case where only the mother or the fetus could be saved, the hospital must offer both treatments and honor the motherâs choice.
A second argument for limiting EMTALA, which was at times floated by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett, is that reading the statute according to its actual text would raise a constitutional problem.
EMTALA imposes an obligation on hospitals that accept Medicare funds, and the Supreme Court has long held that Congress may impose requirements on parties that voluntarily accept federal funding. The constitutional argument is that Congress could not use federal funding provided to a private hospital to neutralize a state ban on abortion because the state of Idaho must also consent to having its law altered in this way.
There is some case law that provides theoretical support for this argument, but the bulk of the Courtâs case law already establishes that a federal grant program that provides money to private parties may displace state law. Thus, for example, in Coventry Health Care v. Nevils (2017), the Court held that the federal governmentâs decision to offer its own employees health plans that violate Missouri law preempts that state law. And in Bennett v. Arkansas (1988), the Court held that federal Social Security law overrides an Arkansas law that allowed the state to seize an incarcerated personâs Social Security benefits.
The Court could conceivably repudiate precedents like Coventry and Bennett, but that would have unpredictable consequences for all sorts of federal programs. Federal spending programs like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are riddled with provisions that might conflict with one state law or another. And if the Supreme Court declares that these state law provisions overcome federal Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid law, that is likely to disrupt those and other programs in erratic ways.
That leaves one other way to achieve an anti-abortion outcome in the Moyle case, whose biggest proponent was Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh noted that Idaho has weakened its abortion ban since this litigation began and that itâs done so in ways that theoretically make it easier for doctors to claim that they needed to perform an abortion to protect a patientâs life. In light of these changes, he suggested that maybe âthere shouldnât be an injunctionâ against Idaho because itâs not clear that the stateâs law still conflicts with EMTALA.
But this argument is hard to square with the facts on the ground in Idaho. As Justice Kagan pointed out close to the end of the argument, hospitals in Idaho are still so uncertain when they can perform an abortion that many of them are flying patients to other states. She noted that just one Idaho hospital had to do so six times so that those patients could receive an emergency abortion in a location where everyone could be sure it was legal.
Idahoâs lawyer, moreover, struggled so hard to explain when Idahoâs law permits a doctor to perform a medically necessary abortion that Barrett accused him of âhedging.â Kavanaughâs argument, in other words, would require the justices to ignore whatâs happening in Idaho and to pretend that Idaho is somehow complying with EMTALA, despite the fact that Idahoâs own lawyer could not explain how its abortion ban works.
So the ultimate question looming over the Moyle case is whether two of the Courtâs Republican appointees will be so troubled by the weakness of the anti-abortion arguments in this case, and so embarrassed by the fact that thereâs really only one plausible way to read EMTALA, that they will begrudgingly apply the law as written.
Thatâs not the most likely outcome in this case. But, at the very least, the Courtâs Republican majority does not appear to have settled on a way to explain a decision creating an abortion exception to the EMTALA statute.
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