Seal Beach : Naval Depot Red Foxes Given a Brief Reprieve

A federal judge extended an order barring the Navy from killing or maiming red foxes in a wildlife sanctuary at the Seal Beach Weapons Station until another hearing on the matter Thursday in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher made the decision Monday to give federal attorneys more time to gather evidence to support their contention that the red foxes must be killed to protect two species of endangered birds that nest in the 1,100-acre Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge on the military property.

An Orange County-based group, the Animal Lovers Volunteer Assn., sued the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1986 to stop the killing of foxes, a predator not native to the area. The foxes, according to government biologists, prey on the eggs of the light-footed clapper rail and the California lest tern, two endangered bird species that inhabit the marshy refuge.

Kelleher issued a temporary restraining order last week that allows the Navy to continue trapping and removing the foxes, but he prohibited killing the animals. Attorneys for Animal Lovers had sought the injunction after learning that a handful of red foxes had been killed in recent weeks by federal biologists.

Federal officials have argued that it has become increasingly difficult to find homes outside the area for the foxes because of their predatory nature and ability to breed rapidly.

In a statement released after Monday’s hearing, U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner said the federal government “intends to pursue all legal activities necessary to protect” the birds in the sanctuary, including the removal of the foxes.