"US Department of Agriculture defends its agents’ killing of the pups, part of a pack adopted by a high school in 2003"

"Conservationists in Idaho are speaking out against the “inhumane” killings of eight wolf pups that were part of a pack adopted by a high school since 2003.

The killings were discovered after biologists who tracked the pack noticed its den was empty this spring. Obtaining a “mortality list” from the state department of fish and game, conservationists realized that agents from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had killed the pups.

Several Idaho conservation groups sent a letter to the secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, requesting that he “immediately suspend the killing of wolf pups on all public lands by the USDA federal agents”."

Maya Yang reports for the Guardian October 11, 2021. [2]