People For the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners

A small but mighty group of property owners from Southwestern Utah’s Cedar City took the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to court over the ESA’s “take” provision which does not allow killing or harassing the threatened Utah Prairie Dog. Last November a Utah federal district judge sided with the property owners.
The group behind the lawsuit is People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners which began five years ago to help educate people about how they can protect their private property rights. It is a volunteer run organization with about 250 members.
PETPO spokesman Derek Morton shares what has happened in May with an overwhelming number of amicus briefs written in support of PETPO’s case.
Morton: “We have had an unbelievable amount of support — even Pacific Legal Foundation was shocked — we had nine states file on our behalf, we had seven senators and five representatives from D.C. all file on our behalf, the CATO Institute, the National Homebuilders Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business Owners — so you had all these big name groups that have jumped in on the fight which is not typically when a case is not in front of the Supreme Court. But everyone recognizes the opportunity here and the damage that the Endangered Species Act has done and recognize the opportunity before us to lend their support in chipping away at the regulations and asking for some common sense as we move forward.”