Judges Refuse to Stop Navy’s Goat Slaughter

Federal judges in San Francisco on Monday turned down an animal preservation group’s request to stop the U.S. Navy from shooting an estimated 1,200 wild goats on San Clemente Island, an operation scheduled to begin Friday.

A last stand against the proposed slaughter may be made Thursday, however, when representatives of the international Fund for Animals say they plan to meet with top-ranking Navy officials in Washington in hopes of arranging a delay until further court action can be taken, according to the fund’s director, Cleveland Amory.

The goats are the last of a non-native herd that once numbered in the thousands. They have been the center of controversy since Navy biologists claimed several years ago that they were destroying the habitats of seven endangered plant and animal species on the island.

Used for Assault Practice

The Navy and Marine Corps use the 51-square-mile island, about 60 miles west of San Diego, for bombing, shelling and assault maneuvers.

Over the years, many of the goats have been shot and trapped in an effort to comply with directives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the federal Environmental Protection Act of 1973. The law was designed to protect various native species of flora and fauna from extinction.

In spite of eradication programs, the goats have survived and reproduced rapidly. The Navy announced two weeks ago that shooting would resume Friday.

The Animal Lovers Volunteer Assn., an animal rights organization based in Los Alamitos, quickly filed for an emergency temporary restraining order. The group sought to have the order be effective until a previously filed lawsuit is settled later in the spring.

Question of Standing

On Monday, however, two judges in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, J. Blaine Anderson and Dorothy Nelson, issued a brief order in which they denied the emergency motion, saying that “the appellants’ standings are extremely questionable.”

Hal Baerg, vice president of conservation group, said, “This was very bad news, tragic.” He said members of his organization believe that there should be more humane ways of dealing with the goats.

“Most of them are in the south part of the island, and the endangered plants and animals are thriving in the northern portion,” he said, adding that he believes a fence would solve the problem. The fence proposal has been turned down by the Navy.

As for the suit to be heard this spring, he said: “If there are no goats left, that would moot the case out.”

In a telephone interview from New York, Amory said that a trapping program, carried out by the Fund for Animals during one month in 1983 and again last summer, removed more than 1,000 goats, which were put up for adoption as pets.

He said he has arranged for a meeting Thursday with top Navy officials and Rep. Bobbi Fiedler (R-Northridge) in hopes of forestalling the slaughter.

He said the Fund for Animals, which has no lawsuits pending in the matter, might consider filing one. He said it would be based in part on the contention that the Navy is in breach of a contract under which his organization was to have been allowed to continue the trapping program for two more years.

Navy spokesman Ken Mitchell said in San Diego, however, that the contract was for only one month in 1983, “and as a courtesy we let them go in again (in 1984).”

As for the meeting Thursday in Washington, Mitchell said he had been informed that such an event had been requested and that he had no assurance that it would take place.

Fiedler could not be reached Monday for comment.

Mitchell said the shooting, if carried out, will be done under a $95,000 contract with Steve Carothers of Flagstaff, Ariz., described as an animal control expert. Hunters armed with semi-automatic shotguns are to hover in helicopters over the animals and down as many as possible from the air before tracking the survivors on foot.

The operation is to be carried out in 10 days, with three follow-up inspections later in the year.

The animals, he said, would be left to decompose where they fell, because the rough terrain and the presence of unexploded shells and bombs would make recovery too risky.