Public opinion, the Leopold Report, and the reform of federal predator control policy

Authors

James W. Feldman, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Date of this Version

2007

Comments

Published in Human-Wildlife Conflicts Volume 1, Number 1, Pages 112–124, Spring 2007. Published and copyright by the Jack H. Berryman Institute. http://www.berrymaninstitute.org/journal/index.html

Abstract

This paper explores the role of public opinion in a landmark shift in the federal predator control pro^gram. In 1963, the Le^opold Committee recommended extensive reform in the federal predator c_ontrol program, predicting that growing p_ublic support for the environmen_tal movement would force such a move if the government did not initiate a change. In the years following the publication of the Leopold Report, the U.S. Division of Wildlife Services reformed its predator control program and tried to improve its public image. Meanwhile, both environmentali_sts and ranchers fought to control publ_ic opinion about the issue. The 1972 ban on pre_dacides (poisons for predators) in fed_eral predator control programs resulted as much from the environmentalists’ ability to control public opinion as from the changing scientific understanding of predators.