Wildlife
Animals need access to the full range of their habitats.
Wild animals enjoy few legal protections under either state or local laws.
At both the state and federal level, the key laws protecting wildlife are those governing when and where hunting is permitted. Some states have also begun also to prosecute people who commit acts of cruelty against wild animals.
A handful of other federal wildlife laws are in effect. These include the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. But these laws protect only a small number of animals, and even for these animals the protections are not robust.
Wild animals experience pain and pleasure just the same as the dogs and cats who share our homes, and who enjoy far more expansive legal protections. Wild animals also play a key role in our environment and ecosystem. And they are affected by all facets of human behavior: where we build, and what we do on developed land.
Factory farming not only affects the lives of the 9 billion animals a year who are raised for food, but also the wild animals who drink from bodies of water and live on the land polluted by these agricultural activities.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is dedicated to pursuing better legal protection for wildlife.
Wildlife Services killed more than 2.2 million animals in 2019.
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
End Wildlife Services’ War on Wildlife
Millions of native wild animals, including coyotes, mountain lions, and bears, are targeted and killed by Wildlife Services. Tell Wildlife Services to stop using your tax dollars to slaughter animals by signing our petition.
Related Cases
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Challenging the Government’s Fatal Mismanagement of Protected Tule Elk
Gescheidt v. National Park Service
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Challenging USDA Redaction of Geese Culling Contract
Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
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Challenging Washington’s Illegal Bear Hunting Regulations
Center for Biological Diversity v. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, et. al.
Looking for case and legal resources? View Resources
See MoreRelated News
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Ecuador’s Constitutional Court Rules Wild Animals Are Subjects of Legal Rights Under the Rights of Nature
In January 2022, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador issued a landmark ruling that individual wild animals are subjects of legal rights under Ecuador’s “rights of nature” constitutional provision. The case involved a woolly monkey who was taken from the wild as a baby and kept unlawfully in a private home for 18 years.January 4, 2023 Animal Law Update -
Big Cat Public Safety Act Signed Into Law
The law will help end the rampant abuse of tigers and other big cats in captivity by banning private possessionDecember 20, 2022 Press Release -
Endangered Species Act Rollbacks Reversed After Animal Legal Defense Fund Lawsuit
U.S. District Court has ruled in favor of the Animal Legal Defense Fund following its lawsuit to vacate rules imposed by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2019 under the Trump administration that weakened the Endangered Species Act (ESA).July 8, 2022 Press Release
