Judge slams feds for failing to protect Sierra Nevada red fox

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Waltz of Treachery

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: shankar s. from Dubai, united arab emirates · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by refusing to designate critical habitat for the Sierra Nevada red fox, even after listing its Sierra Nevada population as endangered in 2021. U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd found three separate errors, including that the agency never weighed the benefits of habitat protection and applied an invented ‘significant threat’ standard not found in the law.

The fox population, estimated between 18 and 39 individuals, was rediscovered near Sonora Pass in 2010 after decades without confirmed sightings. The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife both sued over the habitat refusal, and Drozd has now ordered the agency to draft a new designation within a set timeline.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Thirty-nine foxes, maybe fewer, and the agency in charge of saving them argued the threat to their home wasn't ‘significant’ enough to bother mapping it out. That's a bit like telling a family their house isn't on fire badly enough to call the truck. The judge saw through it in three different ways, which tells you it wasn't a close call to begin with.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Waltz of Treachery · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID

OR FOLLOW THE DESK ON BLUESKY →