Ray Gonda’s opinion piece, “The value of trapping vs. the anti-establishment animal rights persons,” grossly oversimplifies the issues surrounding trapping and why a solid majority of Vermonters want to see a recreational trapping ban.
It’s an inescapable fact that even “best management practices” traps cause great suffering to the animals caught in their unyielding jaws. In addition to physical injuries, which have been extensively documented, wild animals caught in leghold and conibear traps suffer severe and prolonged distress merely by being forcibly restrained in one place.
This is why trapping is so different from hunting:
1) The trapper is not even, initially, trying to kill the animal but rather restrain it until the trapper arrives to bludgeon or stomp on the animal to preserve its pelt.
2) The trapper cannot “pull the trigger” on a specific animal but rather hopes to catch his target out of a range of nontarget animals typically caught in traps.
All Vermonters — rural and urban, hunters and nonhunters, meat eaters and vegetarians — can agree on some basic principles to prevent wanton cruelty to animals, such as that no animal should be tortured to its death or restrained in an inhumane manner.
This is why 68 percent of Vermonters, according to a Fish & Wildlife survey of 2022, oppose recreational trapping. The proposed bill to ban recreational trapping, H.191/S.111, deserves all Vermonters’ support.
John Aberth
Roxbury
