Editor’s note: This commentary is by Pat Monteferrante, who is vice president of the nonprofit Protect Our Wildlife (POW) www.ProtectOurWildlifeVT.org.
[T]he public has been misled to believe that trapping is a necessary wildlife management tool. Available data points to the opposite conclusion. Vermont hears a lot of pro-trapping propaganda from the state, but there is a reason for that. State agency budgets, reliant on the sale of trapping licenses and matching federal funding, ultimately cater to trappers and other consumptive parties – a small yet vocal minority whose interests dictate wildlife policies. Follow the money trail.
Traps are indiscriminate in the animals they trap. It is estimated that at least two “non-target” animals are trapped for every animal species actually targeted. Moreover, traps are just as likely to capture healthy, young and productive animals, as diseased or mature ones. Therefore, trapping cannot target certain animals in order to “manage” a population. Another flaw in the trapping as a “management” tool mantra is that it’s oftentimes counterproductive to its intent to control populations. For example, research shows that when coyotes are aggressively “controlled,” it actually triggers changes in their reproduction cycles, causing them to breed at an earlier age and have larger litters, with a higher survival rate among young.
As the state continues to purchase more land and encourages people to explore these open spaces, it is vital for the public to understand the inherent risks trapping presents and to ultimately question their legitimacy.
It’s also hard to accept that trapping is a regulated wildlife management tool since the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department relies on self-reporting by trappers. Consequently, the department cannot even provide reliable figures on animals trapped, upon which to base sound wildlife management decisions. It is also hard to understand how the state can claim that trapping is highly regulated when they don’t even require mandatory reporting of state endangered, threatened and protected species.
Leghold traps, commonly used in Vermont, are a particularly cruel way to trap an animal. These traps are not designed to kill, but rather, to forcefully immobilize an animal until the trapper returns to either shoot, bludgeon or suffocate the animal. Many non-target species are caught in leghold traps, including birds of prey such as owls, and Vermont endangered animals like the American marten. Since trappers are only required to check traps every 24 hours, the animals suffer for hours on end, often with injuries and exposed to weather extremes, before being killed and skinned for their fur. Leghold traps set underwater kill the animals by drowning, which can take up to 15 minutes for beavers.
Trapping poses additional harm when undertaken on public lands, which are accessed by a wide sector of the public, accompanied by their pets. As the state continues to purchase more land and encourages people to explore these open spaces, it is vital for the public to understand the inherent risks trapping presents and to ultimately question their legitimacy. This is why an initiative in Montana proposes to ban trapping on all of its public lands, despite the presence of a strong hunting and trapping culture there. Vermont should do the same.
