The Animal Damage Control Act
of March 2, 1931
is the primary statutory authority
under which the current
ADC program now operates.
It reads:
“The Secretary of Agriculture
is authorized and directed to conduct
such investigations, experiments,
and tests as he may deem necessary in order to determine, demonstrate,
and promulgate the best methods of eradication, suppression, or bringing
under control on national forests
and other areas of the public
domain as well as on State, Territory or privately owned lands of mountain
lions, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, prairie dogs, gophers, ground squirrels,
jackrabbits, and other animals injurious to agriculture, horticulture,
forestry, animal husbandry, wild game animals, furbearing animals, and
birds, and for the protection of stock and other domestic animals through
the suppression of rabies and tularemia in predatory or other wild animals;
and to conduct campaigns for
the destruction or control of such animals: Provided, that in carrying
out the provisions of this Section the Secretary of Agriculture may cooperate
with States, individuals, and public and private agencies, organizations
and institutions.”
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This Act is not only outdated
(by 68 years), but it is also barbaric and inhumane.
But Hey, that's just my opinion...