The State - News from April 14, 1989

Red foxes are fair game for government trappers at a national wildlife refuge in Orange County, a Los Angeles federal judge declared in finding that the foxes can be killed because they pose a significant threat to two endangered bird species. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher refused an animal rights’ group’s request for an injunction, pending a trial on the trapping program at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The Navy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had ordered the trapping and killing of several hundred of the non-native foxes since 1986 in an effort they say is essential to preserve two species of birds that nest in the 1,100-acre refuge on the naval base. The foxes are believed to prey on the eggs and hatchlings of the light-footed clapper rail and the California least tern.