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(Silver Spring, Md.) - The woodlands, mountains and back roads of Washington State make a perfect home for wildlife and nature, but this area also is teeming with all sorts of criminals desperate for the ultimate hideout. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has its hands full policing these unpredictable outlaws while they simultaneously protect more than 42 million acres of pristine nature. On Sunday, September 6, at 8 PM ET/PT, Animal Planet's RUGGED JUSTICE gives viewers an up-close look within the perilous world of the WDFW.

The WDFW police officers are the last line of defense for the natural world in the Evergreen State. Its dispatchers receive more than 225,000 calls every year, and each day, the officers put their lives on the line to protect the untouched wilderness. There's no such thing as a mundane day on the job as they never know what they may find lurking throughout the rugged terrain. This season on RUGGED JUSTICE, the WDFW officers release aggressive bears into the wild and encounter poachers, shellfish traffickers, drunk drivers, sex offenders and fishermen with outstanding drug-related warrants, including the following:

· Fishermen usually have the reputations for being harmless, but in RUGGED JUSTICE, it's quite the opposite. Officers apprehend an aggressive fisherman with an outstanding warrant for malicious mischief and take others into custody for violating protection orders. And, after other seemingly quiet fishing excursions, the trips end with visits to the local jail because of robbery, assault, overfishing, drugs and other violations.

· Bears coexist with all sorts of forest dwellers in Washington State, but when food is involved, they're not your typical teddy bears. In a precarious situation, WDFW officers relocate a menacing bear after it wanders dangerously close to a campsite and a chicken coop in search of a snack.

· The national parks and woodlands in Washington State are full of wildlife, many of which are protected from hunters. As one officer has a run-in with a shellfish trafficker, it's a tense showdown when officers catch a pair of hunters baiting and poaching bears.

RUGGED JUSTICE is produced for Animal Planet by Shark Teeth Films. Adrian Carter, Tom Mudd and Alex Rader are the executive producers for Shark Teeth Films. For Animal Planet, Keith Hoffman is executive producer and Hilary Tholen is associate producer.

Animal Planet, a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. Animal Planet consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 94 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; Animal Planet L!VE, the go-to digital destination for round-the-clock, unfiltered access to the animal kingdom; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, and merchandising extensions.

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