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Bangor, ME
(August 11, 2008) — The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI)
and the Wildlife Alliance of Maine (WAM) filed suit against the
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (DIFW) today to stop
the agency from continuing to violate the Endangered Species Act
(ESA) by allowing trappers to use traps that injure and sometimes
kill Canada lynx. In May 2008, AWI and WAM sent a 60-day letter of
intent to sue the DIFW in an effort to prompt the agency to take
immediate actions to protect Canada lynx- a species listed as
threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act- from traps. The
state failed to respond to the letter.
In their complaint, AWI and WAM show
that at least 8 lynx were caught in traps set for other species in a
one month time period between October 15, 2007 and November 13,
2007. “The state has failed to protect Canada lynx from
indiscriminate traps and is therefore in violation of the Endangered
Species Act every time a lynx gets caught,” said Camilla Fox,
Wildlife Consultant for AWI. “With eight lynx trapped in just 29
days, this means that on average at least one lynx is trapped every
four days during the trapping season,” said Fox. “And that’s just
the number that is reported.”
A similar lawsuit filed by another
wildlife advocacy organization last year led to a consent decree
settlement with the state that required DIFW to restrict certain
traps in specific regions inhabited by lynx. “Unfortunately those
restrictions were woefully inadequate,” said Daryl DeJoy, Founding
Executive Director of WAM. “More lynx have been trapped after the
settlement was implemented than in previous years so we are forced
to take legal action to compel DIFW to take immediate action to
better protect lynx from non-selective traps.”
AWI and WAM will hold a press
conference today to announce the filing, demonstrate the types of
traps that have captured Canada lynx in Maine, and show photos
obtained through the Freedom of Information Act of lynx captured in
traps:
When:
10:00 a.m., August 11, 2008
Where:
Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building, 202 Harlow Street/
Bangor, Maine
Maine’s resident lynx population is
estimated at only 200-500 individuals. However, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has stated that the population may be in decline
and snow shoe hare populations- the main source of prey for lynx –
have declined by 50% in the last two years in Maine. “It is
biologically reckless for the DIFW to continue to allow the use of
traps that are known to capture, injure, and sometimes kill lynx
when the species may be in decline,” said Fox. “It is also illegal.”
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Contact:
Daryl DeJoy, Wildlife Alliance of Maine, 207-326-0779 (office)/
207-299-2291 (cell)
Camilla Fox, Animal Welfare Institute, 415-690-0338 (cell)
The Animal
Welfare Institute is a non-profit charitable organization founded in
1951 to reduce the sum total of pain and fear inflicted on animals
by humans. More information is available at
www.awionline.org.
The Wildlife
Alliance of Maine is a non-profit organization dedicating to
advocating on behalf of Maine’s wildlife and to promoting a
conservation ethic that represents non-consumptive wildlife users.
More information is available at
www.wildlifealliancemaine.org.
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