The often-hidden toll of Wildlife Services trappers on target and non-target species is sometimes recorded in government documents, many tracked down through the Freedom of Information Act. Here is a small sample of records and other materials.
Death certificate for an eagle
Wildlife Services 2005 document reveals non-target death of a golden eagle, a protected species, in a neck snare on public land in eastern Nevada.
1 Golden Eagle (scode:095) taken (killed)
Read PDF document: MIS Legacy Report
A dog owner's anguish
Sharyn Aguiar writes about the death of her German Shepherd Max, who poisoned by a government M-44 sodium cyanide cartridge in Utah in 2006.
I kneeled at the top of his head, bending over him, crying and trying to figure out what happened to him. I remember crying out "I don't understand, I don't understand" as I looked at his mouth. His mouth had a pinkish/salmonish colored foam coming from it.
Read PDF document: Aguiar letter and story
Hiding the evidence
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Law Enforcement investigation of a federal trapper who caught and killed a golden eagle in a leghold trap in Utah in 2003.
(Redacted) changed ... story regarding the eagle incident three times... The truth being (redacted) killed the eagle without authorization to do so.
Read PDF document: Report#: 2004600947R001
Hiding the evidence, part 2
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources investigation of a federal trapper who caught and killed a golden eagle in a leghold trap in southeast Utah in 2003.
Key passage: "I'm having a hard time buying your story that you don't know anything about this eagle". "If I tell you I shot this bird I will lose my job."
Read PDF document: Case Number: 03-01482
Death of a phantom
A federal trapper documents the death of a wolverine, one of the rarest mammals in North America in his leghold trap on a national forest in Idaho in 2010.
Shot wolverine due to bad foot.
Read PDF document: Field diary
Soaring no more
Agency documents reveal two golden eagles killed in neck snares in Wyoming in 2009 after being drawn to site by coyote carcasses.
Coyote carcasses left from predator management.acted as a draw for scavenging eagles.
Read PDF document: Wildlife Services email and memo
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