The investigator documented abuses ranging from violent, unnecessary beatings of pregnant sows to sawing off a conscious animal's legs. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation, Friends of the Inyo, National Parks and Conservation Association and The Wilderness Society petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week to immediately list the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The entire population of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, a unique race of bighorn found only in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, has declined to about 100 animals. The five herds remaining inhabit steep terrain almost exclusively on public lands in the Inyo National Forest and the wilderness areas of Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks. Several domestic sheep grazing allotments on National Forest lands border the wild sheep's habitat.
Domestic sheep carry a respiratory disease that is deadly to wild bighorn.
Domestic sheep have been allowed to illegally trespass into bighorn habitat, yet the Forest Service has failed to act to prevent a deadly contact between the two kinds of sheep. Mountain lion predation has also increased in the last 10 years, another factor pushing these sheep towards extinction. Wildlife Services failed to disclose to the public its statewide plans to shoot deer in Iowa. Wildlife Services entered into a contract with the City of Iowa City to kill deer before conducting a NEPA analysis and distributing the EA document for public comment. In granting the injunction, Judge Kessler found that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on all three claims, and that the sharpshooting would cause irreparable harm both to the plaintiffs and to the deer.