A federal judge ruled that the pheasant-stocking program on the Cape Cod National Seashore was unlawful, and immediately called off the planned fall release of nearly 600 farm-raised birds on Massachusetts seashore lands.

U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris ruled on September 26, 2003 that the stocking program violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires an environmental assessment before any federal action can take place on U.S.-owned lands. The government and hunting groups had argued that the pheasant-stocking program pre-dated the creation of the 44,000-acre, federally owned National Seashore and that the 1969 NEPA regulations were therefore not applicable.

Saris saw it otherwise. In fact, the federal judge, even though she halted only the pheasant-stocking program, ordered the National Park Service (NPS) to complete an environmental assessment of all hunting programs to determine if they are in the public interest.

The ruling was a significant victory for the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit last year. The plaintiffs—The Humane Society of the United States, the Fund for Animals, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and five Cape Codders—had argued that releasing nearly defenseless pheasants is inhumane and could harm the seashore's fragile ecosystem.

The stocking program, a partnership between the NPS and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, entails releasing semi-tame birds for hunters to kill. In years past, hunters would follow the state trucks that carried the farm birds onto the seashore. The hunters would sit and watch as officials released the birds, and then shoot the pheasants as soon as the truck pulled away.

Now, it's coyotes and foxes that follow the trucks looking for an easy meal; the hunters are ordered to stay at bay until the next morning. The birds huddle under the brush overnight to face shotguns and hunting dogs early the next morning. So few birds survive even a week that this ritual is repeated six times during the six-week hunting season.

Pheasant-Stocking Practices

When raised in captivity, Asian ring-necked pheasants have portions of their beaks removed with cauterizing irons and are fitted with "blinders" to prevent them from fighting within the flock, which often numbers in the hundreds or even thousands. Unlike some wild animals who evade hunters, farmed pheasants have been fed by people their entire lives, so they aren't as wary of humans as wild birds.

And, assuming these farmed pheasants can survive the hunts on the Cape, they likely are at a disadvantage in foraging for food. Research commissioned by the National Seashore found that of the birds studied, none made it through the winter. Most, in fact, were dead within a few days. It's universally believed that the Cape, with its abundance of scrub oaks and scrub pines, doesn't make good habitat for pheasants and their grain-based diet. It would appear that the surviving birds starve to death each year.

In some places, though, pheasants do survive in the wild; when that happens, they may compete with native wildlife. In Illinois, for example, wildlife biologists have determined that pheasants are contributing to the decline of the native prairie chicken, a state-listed endangered species. Among other things, the male pheasants have been disrupting the courtship displays of male prairie chickens.

Of course, given the lack of food sources on the sandy Cape Cod peninsula, biologists say that the pheasants don't survive long enough to compete with native animal species. The National Seashore, however, is home to numerous ecologically important native plants and animals, including a number of endangered species, which may be threatened by the attendant hunting activity.

During the pheasant season, hunting dogs run off established trails, disturb the foraging patterns of native wildlife, and disrupt fragile plant life. In addition, hunters regularly abandon their dogs at the seashore, leaving them free to wreak havoc for days until animal control officers capture them.

Government officials announced last year that they were going to phase out the pheasant-stocking program altogether, but they offered no timetable. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit decided not to wait after losing a legal challenge last year; they filed an expanded suit that included all hunting practices on the National Seashore.

Victory At Last

After battling the program for seven years, The HSUS and other animal protection advocates celebrated with the local community when Judge Saris delivered her decision to end pheasant stocking on the National Seashore.

The decision requires that the Cape Cod National Seashore evaluate all of its hunting programs through a public interest review. The public is invited to participate in the process.

To be informed of hearings on this issue, write to:

Superintendent George Price
Cape Cod National Seashore
99 Marconi Station Rd.
Wellfleet, MA 02667

Until the evaluation is complete, no state trucks crammed with pheasants will rattle down Route 6 headed for the Cape Cod National Seashore. No empty shells of pheasant shot will litter the wildlife management areas. And, most importantly, not one farm-raised pheasant will starve to death in this national park.

Jessica Almy is the Wildlife Advocate for The HSUS's Cape Wildlife Center