SAN ANTONIO— In response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the USDA’s federal animal-killing program known as Wildlife Services today agreed to significantly restrict wildlife trapping and other killing in western and southern Texas. The agreement covers more than 40 counties in the Fort Stockton, Uvalde and Corpus Christi districts.

“This victory provides much-needed relief to the fragile mountain lion and black bear populations that call Texas home,” said Tala DiBenedetto, a carnivore conservation attorney at the Center. “The government shouldn’t be throwing away money to slaughter Texas’s iconic carnivores, especially without knowing what kind of damage its actions may be causing.”

Under today’s court order Wildlife Services must provide, within one year, an environmental assessment that analyzes the effects and risks of its wildlife-killing program in Texas. New information shows that mountain lion numbers are declining in the state, that the southern population is at risk of local extinction and that indiscriminate trapping of mountain lions poses threats to black bears, which are protected as threatened under state law.

Pending completion of the Wildlife Services’ study, the court order imposes several measures to protect wildlife across the three districts. For example, it largely bans Wildlife Services from chasing mountain lions with packs of hounds. It also restricts most uses of indiscriminate body-gripping traps and foot snares, as well as any wildlife killing activites by the program on federal public lands. It further limits the use of neck snares and leghold traps to prevent the accidental trapping of mountain lions and black bears.

The order also places a moratorium on Wildlife Service’s killing of mountain lions in the Corpus Christi and Fort Stockton districts, where too-small mountain lion populations are at risk due to declining genetic diversity and habitat fragmentation. These populations face high levels of explotiation because Texas allows unlimited numbers of mountain lions to be killed year-round.

“I’m hopeful that this win will protect vulnerable mountain lions, black bears and other wildlife from painful injuries and brutal deaths,” said DiBenedetto. “Texans deserve to see their native wildlife continue to live and thrive, not needlessly suffer and die by the hands of paid government killers.”