This commentary is by Brenna Galdenzi of Stowe, president of Protect Our Wildlife.
When I first witnessed images of terrified bobcats, foxes and other wildlife with metal jaws crushing their limbs while humans stood smugly smiling over them, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I thought that it was illegal activity or maybe something from another country.
I soon found out that not only was this cruel activity — trapping — legal, but it’s endorsed by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. Tradition runs deep in Vermont and some of those traditions run contrary to modern science, sound wildlife management, and ethics.
When I started researching trapping in Vermont back in 2010, I quickly learned that it was worse than I ever imagined. It set me on a course that has changed my life. Much of what I come across is too horrific to describe in words, but photos and videos shared by Vermont trappers tell the story. The images share a common theme: terrified animals, clearly in pain, fearing for their lives, and instead of trappers swiftly ending their suffering, they appear to enjoy intimidating and inflicting fear upon the defenseless animals.
In addition to leghold traps, Vermont allows the use of body-gripping kill traps that slam shut on otters, beavers and other animals with 90 pounds of pressure per square inch, and also drowning traps that are used mainly for muskrats.
And let’s not forget that the suffering doesn’t end when the trapper returns to check his/her trap. There are no humane standards by which trappers must kill the trapped animal. Common methods of killing trapped animals are bludgeoning, drowning, choking and, if the animal is “lucky,” s/he is shot with a .22.
Animals are trapped for recreation and bragging rights. Fodder for Facebook. Furs are not selling, so trappers can’t claim it’s for income. Trappers kill bobcats, coyotes and fisher, vital predators on our landscapes who contribute greatly to biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. Trappers also target otters, gray foxes, and other animals labeled as “furbearers” by Vermont Fish & Wildlife.
Much of the killing is rooted in hatred toward animals like coyotes, who they view as competition over prey species, like deer, that they want all for themselves to hunt — similar to what we see out west with the bloodlust aimed at wolves and the ill-informed rhetoric spewed by rabid trappers and hounders demanding “predator control!” We have that here, but it’s directed at Eastern coyotes. It’s not science. It’s emotion-based killing and it’s allowed as a “recreational” opportunity by Vermont Fish & Wildlife.
Trapping is not only inherently cruel, as animals suffer in steel-jawed leghold traps for long periods of time, but traps are indiscriminate. Protected species like hawks and owls, as well as dogs and cats, are trapped each year in Vermont.
We know about this only through public records requests that we submit annually to Vermont Fish & Wildlife. They know that trapping is able to continue only when it’s kept in the shadows. It’s no surprise that Vermont Fish & Wildlife never publicizes anything to do with trapping on its social media pages, unlike fishing and hunting.
Trapping season started on Saturday, Oct. 23, and runs through March 31. It’s allowed on private lands, with permission, and on most of our public lands, including National Wildlife Refuges like Silvio O. Conte.
The plain truth is, we cannot protect wildlife until we pass a ban on trapping. Ten other states in the U.S. have either banned or severely restricted trapping. If you don’t speak for Vermont’s wildlife, who will?
