Matthew Kline

June 22, 2021Clinic Sues National Park Service Over Failure to Protect Tule Elk

“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.

Our Animal Law & Policy Clinic took legal action against the National Park Service today for its negligence in allowing tule elk to die slow and preventable deaths as a result of starvation and dehydration at Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California.

The elk couldn’t get past a fence placed to stop them from competing for food and water with cattle who the Park Service permit to graze on what is public land. Some of the biggest names in the Bay Area’s organic meat and dairy industry lease land in Point Reyes, including Straus Family Creamery, Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn Niman of BN Ranch, LLC, and David Evans of Marin Sun Farms.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of several California residents who have personally witnessed emaciated and dead elk at Point Reyes and the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

“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, a Clinical Fellow with Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, who is one of the attorneys representing the Plaintiffs.

The story has so far been covered by Associated Press (AP) and The Marin Independent Journal.

The Los Angeles Times, CBS Sacramento, Press Democrat, US News, Mercury NewsThe Sacramento Bee, FOX40 have so far syndicated AP’s coverage.

You also can read the Clinic’s original media release, which includes a link to the federal lawsuit filed by our Clinic.