Fund for Animals Condemns Federal Government for Again Approving Sport Hunting of Rare Trumpeter Swans

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TO NATIONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND POLITICAL EDITORS:

Fund for Animals Condemns Federal Government for Again Approving Sport Hunting of Rare Trumpeter Swans

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Jun. 18 -/E-Wire/-- The Fund for Animals today criticized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for turning back the clock on trumpeter swan recovery by approving a sport hunting season on the imperiled birds. The FWS's decision came after it reached a legal settlement with The Fund and other groups in which it agreed to reconsider the highly controversial hunting season, which it first approved last year.

"It is absolutely outrageous that the Fish and Wildlife Service would simply regurgitate the same exact decision as last year, after it agreed to reconsider the biological impacts of hunting trumpeter swans rather than litigate over this issue," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The Fund for Animals. "The agency claims that it does not have the funds to list new species such as the trumpeter swan under the Endangered Species Act, but it has somehow found plenty of money to implement new sport hunting seasons on rare species."

The trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl species in the world, with a wingspan of seven to eight feet. The tri-state population of Rocky Mountain trumpeter swans is a distinct sub-population with only about 350 remaining birds and 70 breeding pairs, and is the subject of a pending emergency petition for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The imperiled trumpeter swan is already listed on the FWS's "Birds of Management Concern" list, a registry of bird species that "are likely to become candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act."

Under the plan approved by the FWS, trumpeter swans can be killed by sport hunters in Montana, Nevada, and Utah, despite the widespread scientific consensus among trumpeter swan experts that the hunt, in combination with other threats, poses a significant threat to the survival and recovery of the species. The hunting of similar-looking tundra swans will also continue.

"A sport hunting season on seriously imperiled trumpeter swans is biologically reckless and legally flawed," added Andrea Lococo, Rocky Mountain coordinator for The Fund for Animals. "The federal government should not play Russian roulette with the last remaining trumpeter swans simply to absolve tundra swan hunters of liability for killing rare trumpeters."

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