This week, APNM (along with WildEarth Guardians and Sierra Club) delivered a letter calling for a ban on public lands trapping in New Mexico to the state Department of Game & Fish (NMDGF), and the New Mexico Game Commission. Read the Associated Press story on our efforts here.
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| Honey and Fawn, victims of leg-hold traps and now 3-legged ambassador dogs (Photo: WildEarth Guardians) |
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The letter, submitted in response to the Game Commission’s ongoing public comment period for the state’s “furbearer harvest” rulemaking, outlines in certain terms why trapping is cruel and barbaric. Sadly, increasing numbers of New Mexicans are encountering the problem of barely-regulated leg-hold traps when hiking on public lands.
Since December 2010, at least four New Mexican hikers have had companion dogs severely injured in traps or have themselves been caught in the devices. In all cases, the land management agencies (including U.S. Forest Service, BLM, and State Land Office) as well as NMDGF were not required to notify hikers of the traps present. Shocking as these incidents are, the toll of wildlife is worse and goes unreported.
Colorado and Arizona instituted a ban on public lands trapping in the mid-1990’s. In New Mexico, a 2005 poll found that 63% of the public supports prohibiting traps on public lands with only 22% opposing a ban. As wildlife-viewing increasingly becomes the prominent economic driver of outdoor recreation in New Mexico—according to 2004 NMDGF data, wildlife-watching garners the state 572 times more revenue than trapping—leg-hold traps are unpopular, unnecessary and outdated as well as appallingly cruel.
Visit APNM’s trapping page for more information on what you can do to limit and prohibit body-crushing traps on lands held in the public trust. On the webpage, find links for writing letters to your state representatives, NMDGF, and the Governor’s Office. Raise your voice on behalf of the thousands of animals injured and killed every year by these vicious devices.
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