Dozens of tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore have died from starvation and dehydration in the last year because the animals couldn’t get past a fence that the National Park Service placed to stop them from competing for food and water with cattle, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the federal government.
Three California residents and the Animal Legal Defense Fund sued the park service in federal court in San Francisco, claiming it is being negligent and saying more animals will die if the agency is not ordered to provide food and water during the drought.
“The National Park Service has a responsibility to protect and preserve these beautiful animals. The idea that depriving them of food and water somehow fulfills that responsibility isn’t just absurd, it’s undeniably inhumane,” said Kate Barnekow, of Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, who is representing the plaintiffs.
Point Reyes National Seashore spokeswoman Melanie Gunn said she couldn’t comment on pending litigation.
Tule elk are a subspecies of elk native to California. The 700-pound animals, which were hunted to near extinction in the 1800s, were reintroduced in Point Reyes in 1978. Herds of the animals roam within a preserve at Tomales Point at the northern end of the national seashore.
According to the lawsuit, 152 elk — more than a third of the population — have died since last year, and necropsies obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the emaciated elk died of starvation or dehydration.