Seal Beach : Judge Refuses to Halt Killing of Red Foxes

A federal judge refused Monday to halt the killing of red foxes at a Seal Beach wildlife sanctuary, saying that the animals pose a threat to two endangered species of birds.

An Orange County-based animal rights group has sought to have the foxes trapped and then transferred temporarily to the Wildlife Waystation in San Bernardino County before being relocated in the wild outside of California.

But just as he had ruled April 13, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher said again Monday that there is no evidence that any other state would take the foxes, and that it is more important to protect the endangered bird species than the foxes in the 1,100-acre wildlife refuge within the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

The Navy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have ordered the trapping and killing of several hundred foxes since 1986, an effort that they contend is essential to preserve two species of birds on which the foxes prey--the light-footed clapper rail and the California least tern.

The state Department of Fish and Game is conducting a similar program at the nearby Bolsa Chica Wildlife Reserve, where the non-native foxes are believed to be a threat not only to the clapper rail and least tern but also to the endangered Belding’s savannah sparrow.

The Animal Lovers Volunteer Assn., which has challenged the federal trapping program since its inception in the summer of 1986, has contended that the killings are unwarranted because there is no evidence that the foxes are hunting the birds. They have presented statements from wildlife experts that the birds are dying because their environment is severely polluted.