A district court has approved a plan to kill feral cattle in the Gila wilderness.

According to KRQE News, the court recently ruled in favor of a plan by the Forest Service to shoot approximately 150 feral cattle in the Gila Wilderness. Forest officials said that snipers were sent to the area on Thursday, Feb. 23, to shoot the cattle. 

“We applaud the judge’s decision upholding the hard work done by the Forest Service to protect the Gila, America’s first wilderness,” co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity Todd Schulke said, according to KRQE News. “The American people will get clean water, a healthy river, and quality wildlife habitat out of the deal.”

A district court has approved a plan to kill feral cattle in the Gila wilderness. | Etienne Girardet/Unsplash

Officials say that feral cattle damage ecosystems by overgrazing, destroying water banks and polluting water sources.

The plan was opposed by the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, which said it would be difficult to identify branded non-feral cattle from the air. The district court judge disagreed saying that any ranchers' cattle were not likely to be killed.