"EXPOSED" returns to Ground Zero in the wildlife-killing wars: Idaho

Photo of EXPOSED postcard

 


The award-winning film Jane Goodall wants millions to see — "EXPOSED: USDA's Secret War on Widlife" — is returning to Idaho, America's biggest wolf-killing state, for five screenings, Oct. 12-16, 2015.

View "EXPOSED" screening schedule

"EXPOSED" is a documentary featuring three former federal agents and a prominent Congressman who blow the whistle on a barbaric and wasteful wildlife management program within the USDA called, of all things, "Wildlife Services." Not only have agents from this program killed millions of wild animals unnecessarily each year, but countless people and pets have suffered injury and death due to their negligent use of traps and poisons.

Each screening will be followed by an audience question and answer session with film co-producer and director Brooks Fahy.

 


"EXPOSED" Screening Schedule

 

COEUR D'ALENE | MONDAY, OCTOBER 12
Coeur d'Alene Library, Community Room
702 E. Front Ave.
6 p.m. | Free
Event sponsor website | Flyer

 

MOSCOW | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13
1912 Center, Great Room
412 E. Third St.
7 p.m. | Free
Event sponsor website | Flyer

 

BOISE | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
Boise State University
Student Union Building, Lookout Room
4 p.m. | Free
Event sponsor website | Flyer

 

BOISE | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
The Flicks, 646 W. Fulton St, Boise
7:30 p.m. | $5 at door
Event sponsor website | Flyer

 

POCATELLO | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16
Idaho State University
Student Union Building, POND Wood River Room
7 p.m. | $5 at door (free for students)
Event sponsor website | Flyer

 

The Idaho screenings are being sponsored by Predator Defense, Friends of the Clearwater, Advocates for the West, Western Watersheds Project, and Kootenai Environmental Alliance.

 


Why Idaho?

Every year, agents from a barbaric and wasteful program within the USDA that is egregiously misnamed "Wildlife Services" kill millions of animals across the nation. These federal agents are highly active in Idaho, and their methods—which are taxpayer funded—ignore science, harm humans, and kill pets and endangered species.

Idaho has a reputation as a veritable playground for hunters, trappers and goverment agents, who slaughter hundreds of thousands of wild animals unnecessarily there each year. Idaho earned its reputation as the country's biggest wolf-killing state by slaughtering close to 2,000 gray wolves since 2011, when they lost federal endangered species protection and management was turned over to state wildlife agencies.

Idaho has even allowed Wildlife Services' agents to gun down wolves from helicopters over the "Lolo Zone," a prime wolf habitat in the North-Central part of the state. The Lolo Zone features some of the most rugged and beautiful public wildlands in the Lower 48. Idaho's stated goal is to reduce their wolf population to 150, a scientifically disastrous objective that destroys the positive effect apex predators have on ecosystems and the biodiversity they foster.

The Agency and the Whistle-Blowing Film

Wildlife Services is charged with taking out any threat to livestock-real or alleged. This killing is done largely for the benefit of private individuals who don't take responsibility for protecting their animals.

The whistle-blowers in the film "EXPOSED" reveal deeply entrenched problems within this federal agency, not the least of which is lack of accountability with federal funds. Another problem is Wildlife Services' obstinacy in ignoring science, which clearly shows the exponentially accelerating ecological damage caused by killing off predator species.

But the biggest outcry is about the inhumane and indiscriminate methods the agents use-traps, snares, aerial gunning and poisons. Ironically, these devices often pose a greater risk than the very wild animals they purport to control. Many proven nonlethal alternatives that minimize conflicts with wild animals are available, but Wildlife Services does not require landowners to use them before their trappers apply lethal force.

To date, countless people and pets have suffered injury and death due to negligent use of traps and poisons. And while Wildlife Services' own directives require agents to post warnings to alert the public, they often don't post them. When they do, the signs are only marginally effective, as animals and young children don't understand them.

Wildlife Services has been publicly condemned by Jane Goodall, PH.D., DBE, who said "I hope EXPOSED will be watched by millions, so Americans will learn of the unforgivable actions of those who have exercised their power to cause untold agony to thousands of innocent fellow creatures on our planet."

The agency has also been excoriated by The Humane Society of the United States, the American Society of Mammalogists, and many other credible organizations and individuals.

Learn more about EXPOSED and the USDA's War on Wildlife.

Help Us End America's War on Wildlife

Please join us in our work to expose this rogue agency and its unconscionable waste of taxpayer dollars. Together, we can reform Wildlife Services and stop America’s war on wildlife. Support our nationwide screenings of EXPOSED with a tax-deductible contribution today.