From: the Center for Biological Diversity
Published January 18, 2008 10:33 AM


Bush Administration Abandons Recovery of Jaguar


SILVER CITY, N.M — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced January 17 that it will not prepare a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar and will not attempt to recover the species in the United States or throughout its range in North and South America. The decision was signed by Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall on January 7, 2008.



The decision is an attempt to moot an active lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity seeking a recovery plan and designation of protected critical habitat areas for the New World's largest cat. The decision also seeks to circumvent the Endangered Species Act from slowing Bush administration plans to build thousands of miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without environmental review. The wall will short-circuit current efforts by jaguars to recolonize the United States.