As a scientist advocating for evidence-based decision-making, I’m doing everything I can to promote Roxy’s Law, Senate Bill 32, to ban public lands trapping, snaring and poisoning in New Mexico.

In my testimony and prior opinion pieces, I address the science and value-based systems that inform debate on these lethal tools. While those points seem to resonate with some, recent debate from legislators centers not on science but on the traditions of farming and ranching.

So never mind science for a moment. I’d like to talk about traps, snares and poisons wearing my farmer hat. I am the daughter of three generations of farmers. I think three generations is enough time to inform useful thoughts on land stewardship.

My great-grandfather, grandfather, father, their wives, children and hired help never had to employ a trap, snare or poison in their livelihood of raising livestock and crops. We had more issues with deer in fields or rodents in grain bins than coyotes even looking at our cows or horses. Coyotes were welcomed because they checked rodent populations and were fun to watch.

During state Senate floor debate, Sen. Cliff Pirtle portrayed vulnerable images of cute baby cows. I agree, they sure are cute, as are baby pigs, chickens, horses and all the young ‘uns of the pastoral lot. Those same baby cows Pirtle so vividly depicted are some of my fondest childhood memories. But Pirtle also vividly described gory scenes of predation by wild canids. Well, nothing like that happened on my family’s farm (farming can be gory thanks to humans).

We weren’t spared those gory scenes of nature red in tooth and claw because we were lucky in some way. We didn’t experience conflict with nature because we understood nature and practiced commonsense husbandry. In nature, babies are vulnerable. So calves (and colts, fillies, piglets) were welcomed into the world close to human presence and shelters. We lost fewer mothers to birthing complications that way.

We also avoided conflict with nature by not asking for conflict in the form of lethal control. This is where I must put my science hat back on and point out that studies increasingly support my family’s experience. Lethal control begets chaos in the social dynamics of coyotes and other predators. It can also increase the chances that breeding adults get killed before they teach their young to properly hunt. If you’re not taught how to get healthy food, you end up at the easiest fast-food joint. Similarly, juveniles that aren’t taught to hunt native prey might turn to an atypical food source like an easier (future) burger, however cute it may be.

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Many of us New Mexicans are – or know – people who “fair chase” hunt on our public lands. Our state Department of Game & Fish (DGF) rules give over 80,000 licensed hunters seasonal opportunities to shoot wildlife game by arrow or gun. Some hunt for food, some for a trophy, many to maintain a family tradition.

Soon, our state game commission, which oversees DGF, will vote on a very different set of public land hunting rules – the trapping of “fur bearers.” Existing DGF trapping rules are plagued with environmental, economic and ethical problems. Their victims: native wildlife, taxpayers, and the domesticated animals and humans that use public lands.

It’s time for change.

New Mexico has only a few thousand licensed trappers – 2,037 in the 2017-18 season. Their traps “harvested” over 5,100 “protected furbearers”; 85% were foxes and bobcats.

N.M. trappers pay $20 for a license, typically sell the fur pelts and pay no GRT on them. DGF rules let trappers “bag” – kill – an unlimited number of furbearers – “protected” or not. New Mexicans can also trap unprotected furbearers – e.g., coyotes – year-round without a license.

A trap indiscriminately catches any animal that steps into it – whether it be a fawn, critically endangered Mexican gray wolf, cougar cub, livestock or pet dog.

When the trap’s steel jaw, snare, cage, or leg/foot hold closes onto it, the animal can experience excruciating pain. It is always immobilized. Some animals try to escape by chewing their foot off. Most lie in misery for hours or days before the trapper or another predator comes by to finish them off.

Trapping is not “fair chase” hunting. It is barbaric and cruel. What’s more, the DGF policy that allows trappers to litter our public lands with hidden traps is dangerous – and very difficult and expensive to enforce. A recent example: DGF botching the criminal case against the trapper charged with 34 counts of illegal trapping and killing the pet dog that inspired ‘Roxy’s Law’.

It’s no wonder that 69% of New Mexico voters oppose the use of traps and snares. Yet now, DGF proposes a four-year plan that makes only cosmetic changes to New Mexico trapping rules.

This month our governor’s new game commission is accepting public comments before it votes on the new rules. How can we open their minds and hearts to change New Mexico trapping rules? Here are four things each of us can do now.

• Participate in the game commission’s upcoming evening meeting nearest you: Oct. 22 in Raton, Oct. 23 in Roswell, Oct. 24 in Las Cruces and Oct. 30 in Albuquerque.
• Send the commission your comments via email to the DGF at: dgf-furbearer-rules@state.nm.us and/or mail to: NM DGF, Attn: Furbearer Rule Development, P.O. Box 25112, Santa Fe, N.M. 87504.
• Learn more by reading the Albuquerque Journal’s Sept. 16 editorial.
• Share and sign Trap Free New Mexico’s petition.

Please act now so we can solve the problems with trapping in New Mexico.

Read the Guest Column in the Albuquerque Journal

The post Clock is ticking – stand up against trapping appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

“It’s been so long this poor thing has been suffering,” she said. “It was very skinny. You could see its bones — it definitely wouldn’t have survived long.”

“The leg was probably swollen to four or five times the normal size,” the captain said of its injury, estimating the trap may have been there for months. “We had to pull a piece of the trap out of its leg — I’d never seen anything like it before.”

Read the article in the Los Angeles Times »

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