US government is funding kills of endangered animals, activists say

A brown bear mother eats her catch as her cubs come running on 11 August 2023 at Brooks Falls within Alaska's vast Katmai National Park and Preserve. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

The US federal government has been accused of simultaneously paying to protect endangered species while funding state-organized hunts of large, endangered predators, like gray wolves and grizzly bears, that increase the likelihood of their extinction.

A coalition of more than 35 animal welfare and Indigenous groups in late 2021 formally petitioned the US Department of the Interior to develop rules to withhold money from state agencies that fund the “slaughters”. But the department has not responded to the petition, the groups allege.