Jaguar recovery has hit a wall -- namely, the hundreds of miles of walls now being recklessly built along the U.S.-Mexico border.


To survive, jaguars -- which are endangered in the U.S. -- require an extensive range and the ability to travel through remote areas between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s a task made nearly impossible by new border wall construction, and these big cats may become extinct in the U.S. as a result.



Help save America’s endangered jaguars! Urge your elected officials to stop the construction of hundreds of miles of new border walls that will harm wildlife and do little to secure our borders, and to fund efforts to address the harm inflicted by previous wall and road construction.


As soon as this Friday, members of the House and Senate Subcommittees on Appropriations for Homeland Security will meet to consider an amendment to the Homeland Appropriations spending bill offered by Senator Jim DeMint (amendment #1399) that would require the construction of hundreds of additional miles of walls along the U.S.-Mexico border.


The several hundred miles of border walls and roads that have been constructed so far have already caused tremendous damage to wildlife and habitat… and only shifted illegal activities to the sensitive areas that our border wildlife needs to survive. The House version of the appropriations bill identifies $40 million to offset these impacts.


As a member of one of these powerful subcommittees, your elected official can make a difference by stripping the harmful DeMint amendment in conference, and ensuring crucial money is allocated to address the environmental damage that has already been caused by border wall and road construction. Your elected officials need to hear from you. Please take action now!


Jaguars aren’t the only animals being threatened by the wall. Under the Real ID Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security can waive existing environmental laws and vital scientific review to hurry the construction of walls and roads.


As a result, vital border habitat for jaguars, ocelots, jaguarundi, desert bighorn sheep, Sonoran pronghorns, Mexican gray wolves, cougars, black bears, Cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, desert tortoises, bats and other wildlife is being destroyed and fragmented at an alarming rate.


We don’t have much time to prevent the situation on the border from getting worse. Please send a message to your elected officials now.

Thanks for taking action!


Source: Defenders of Wildlife