The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a landmark piece of U.S. federal legislation that protects threatened and endangered wildlife, fish, plants, and their habitats. The ESA remains a wildly popular law among American voters and "has been credited with saving 99% of listed species from extinction thanks to the collaborative actions of federal agencies, state, local and Tribal governments, conservation organizations and private citizens.” The law has also protected millions of acres of habitat: forests, beaches, rivers, and wetlands that species rely on to survive and recover. 

Yet, despite half a century of protecting, conserving, and recovering wildlife from the brink of extinction, the ESA is currently under attack by the Trump Administration and Republican members of Congress. Instead of upholding the law and representing the interests of the people, they are prioritizing corporate interests, like the fossil fuel industry, and profit above science, the health of the planet, and the survival of endangered species. 

Under the Trump Administration, federal lawmakers are aiming to enact reforms that place economic profits over species survival, undermine the definition of habitat to allow for more development, and prevent use of the best available science in order to strip the ESA of its strength and power in protecting wildlife from extinction.  

We must act now to ensure the ESA and the animals it protects do not become victims of profit. Threatened and endangered animals around the world need your help today!

Take action by contacting your federal Representative and urging them to oppose bills H.R.1897 and H.R.845, which are described in more detail below.  

Let your legislators know what our world’s wildlife means to you and that we must protect threatened and endangered species and ensure a livable planet for all of us.    

You can find your House Representative here.

March 2025: 

In March of 2025, the House of Representatives proposed two bills that attack the ESA: H.R.1897, the “ESA Amendments Act of 2025” and H.R.845, the so-called “Pet and Livestock Protection Act of 2025”. FOUR PAWS has signed a letter of opposition to these bills with a coalition of other animal welfare, conservation, scientific, educational, religious, sporting, outdoor recreation, business, and community focused organizations. You can read the full statement here and learn more about the proposed bills below.  

 H.R.1897, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman, contains numerous provisions that would drastically weaken the ESA and decrease protections for threatened and endangered species, ultimately condemning them to continued declines and challenges. The bill's new provisions and loopholes include ways to make it easier for fossil fuel companies and corporate polluters to develop our public lands without regard for species and environmental protections.  

H.R.1897 would significantly rewrite key portions of the ESA to prioritize politics over science and inappropriately shift responsibility for key implementation decisions from the federal government to the states, many of which do not have sufficient resources or legal mechanisms in place to take the lead in conserving listed species. It would place significant new administrative burdens on already over-burdened agencies. It would turn the current process for listing and recovering threatened and endangered species into a far lengthier process that precludes judicial review of key decisions.  

H.R.845, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert, directs the Secretary of the Interior to reissue the final rule published on November 3, 2020, delisting the gray wolf within 60 days of enactment. The bill bars judicial review of the Secretary’s action delisting the wolf.  

The gray wolf is an iconic keystone species that plays a vital role in keeping America’s ecosystems healthy. Gray wolf populations in the United States were decimated by decades of predator control programs, as well as loss of habitat and prey. Since receiving protection under the ESA in the 1970s, the gray wolf has begun a comeback but remains far from recovered.  

The rule that H.R.845 would reinstate was hastily issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the end of the first Trump administration to delist gray wolves in 44 states. The rule was challenged by conservation organizations, and in February 2022 a federal district court found that the delisting decision was unlawful, including because it delisted wolves across 48 states on the status of core populations without proper consideration for wolves’ more precarious status elsewhere.  

H.R.845 undermines the integrity of the ESA by forcing the reinstatement of the scientifically indefensible delisting rule and precluding judicial review, undermining the rule of law that holds government officials accountable in the courts. 

We oppose both H.R.1897 and H.R.845, which are damaging bills that would dramatically weaken the ESA.  

Please call your federal Representative and ask them to protect the Endangered Species Act and vote NO on H.R.1897 and H.R.845. You can look up your Congress members and find their contact information here.