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Legal Action on Wildlife Abuse


	©Corbis
	The HSUS fights for wildlife targeted by trophy and sport hunters.

The HSUS's Animal Protection Litigation section fights in court for animals targeted by hunters. To see the current docket beyond the cases mentioned below, click here.

Wildlife Finds Refuge in the Courts

In August 2006, a U.S. District judge found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's policy expanding hunting and trapping on National Wildlife Refuges is unlawful. It had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by opening or expanding hunting on 37 wildlife refuges in just five years. NEPA requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to look at the whole picture and investigate the cumulative affect before changing a refuge's hunting policy. The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by The Fund for Animals.

New Jersey Supreme Court Tells Trophy Hunters: Not in Our State

When New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection Lisa Jackson refused to allow a trophy hunt of black bears in the state again in 2007, saying that appropriate non-lethal alternatives had not been adequately implemented, trophy hunters took the issue to court. The New Jersey Supreme Court denied their demand to allow a 2006 bear hunt, sparing the lives of hundreds of animals who would have been killed for a head on a wall or a hide on the floor.

Oregon Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Captive Hunting

The Oregon Supreme Court issued a decision upholding the state Fish and Wildlife Commission's authority to prevent the captive hunting of non-indigenous deer. The case involved several criminal charges spanning more than a decade concerning Clark Couch's facility near Madras, Ore. The HSUS submitted briefing in the case because the question of whether state fish and wildlife officials can regulate captive hunting has broad implications for a number of states struggling to stamp out these unfair practices.

Current Docket

Legal Victories