Our activism is working!
Help us keep fighting for the Tule elk!
About 700 Tule elk currently live at Point Reyes National Seashore park, about 20 miles north of San Francisco. That's about 1/8th of 5,500, the Earth's entire approximate population of this rare subspecies of elk. Tule elk are native to California, but almost slaughtered to extinction by the mid-1800s.
In 1978, just ten elk were successfully transported and re-established at Point Reyes, into a fenced Tule Elk “Reserve” area, northernmost Tomales Point.
But at least 475 of these magnificent and gentle elk have died from thirst and starvation in the last decade, during summer-autumn droughts. The National Park Service was responsible, because its policies favor a handful of private beef and dairy operations still renting taxpayer-subsidized land in this public park.
Because of ranches, hundreds of miles of cattle fencing are maintained, at taxpayer expense. Fences restrict the natural movement of elk and other animals too. Fences also block human visitor access to a third (28,000 acres) of the entire (71,000-acre) park.
In 2024, the Tomales Point Reserve, with its 8-foot-tall, 3-mile-long southern border fence, contains about 315 elk, almost half the park's population. Elk can't roam outside the Reserve for food and water during California's hot, dry summer-autumn season, which is worsening with the climate crisis.
But over the last three years — and with your care, participation, and generous donations — we dedicated ourselves to fighting for the removal of the deadly Reserve's fence, and all the cows too.
Our mix of activism, creative actions, demonstrations, education, and outreach have finally paid off. In June of 2023, the National Park Service initiated an 18-month-long process to finally dismantle the Reserve fence! This would free these elk to roam outside the Reserve to eat, drink, and reproduce more freely with the park's two other elk herds, important for genetic diversity.
After 45 years, the Reserve's fence may finally come down, marking a landmark victory… and then we will work even harder for the next, bigger goal: removing the park's private cattle businesses, which harm not just elk, but all animals at Point Reyes.
4,500 private, exploited beef and dairy cows degrade the land, pollute the water, and emit more greenhouse gasses than all the park's annual visitor vehicles do. (It's not the cows' fault, they are victims too; exploited for profit.)
With your support, we will fully re-wild Point Reyes; have it become the wild park it was always meant to be. All the wonderful, wild animals at Point Reyes — bobcats, coyotes, jackrabbits, badgers, skunks, opossums, deer, elk, owls and hawks and even mountain lions and black bear and so many more — should live their best, freest lives. All the Seashore's 1.5 million annual human visitors will benefit, too, from the joy of being able to visit them.
Your gift today to In Defense of Animals, will help us continue our work to re-widl Point Reyes, protect the Tule elk, and become a model for how dedicated, determined, heartfelt advocacy can champion elk and wild animals everywhere.