Protect grizzly bears from extinction!

Friend, grizzly bears need your immediate action.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they are retaining federal protections for grizzly bears living in the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. While this is a positive step, grizzly bears still need your help!

In a seeming contradiction to their decision to continue protections for grizzly bears, USFWS also proposed making it easier for those in agribusiness—like ranches or cattle farms—to kill grizzly bears on both public and private lands. This is a concern because these cattle and sheep producers pose the single greatest threat to grizzly bear recovery, putting their continued recovery at risk.

Please urge USFWS not to adopt rules that permit greater leniency for those in agribusiness to kill grizzly bears and instead increase efforts to reduce all conflicts with grizzly bears, including with cattle and sheep owners. We only have until May 16 to speak up for grizzly bears, so please act NOW!

About 50,000 grizzly bears once ranged from northern Mexico to Alaska, but by the 1930s, they had been nearly wiped out. The remaining approximately 135 bears were saved because of protections afforded to them by the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Since then, grizzly populations have started to slowly rebound, but with fewer than 2,000 individuals in the lower-48 states, they are nowhere near recovered. That's why it is imperative USFWS continue protections for these bears, but it also works to reduce all conflicts with grizzly bears to ensure those protections are meaningful.

Even with the current protections in place, ranchers already kill a significant number of grizzly bears so we should not be making it easier for them to kill more. This threat, along with the loss of habitat and corridors and the effects of the climate crisis, all mean grizzly bears still face an uphill battle to become fully recovered, so USFWS should be strengthening their protections, not looking to weaken them.

Please send a message to USFWS before the May 16 deadline urging them to strengthen protections for grizzly bears!

Thank you,

Sara Amundson
President
Humane World Action Fund