“Roxy’s Law is doing exactly what New Mexicans hoped it would,” said Chris Smith, southwest wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “Fewer native wildlife are being brutally killed for private profit and public lands are now safer for New Mexicans and visitors to recreate on with their pets.”

Recently released data from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish shows a clear decrease in wildlife killed by trappers since the implementation of Roxy’s Law, which bans commercial and recreational trapping across New Mexico public lands.

TrapFree New Mexico has worked diligently to track when New Mexicans and their pets encounter traps on public lands. We collect stories of trap encounters, track media articles, and even have an interactive map of all trapping incidents known to us. Since Roxy’s Law went into effect, negative trapping experiences have dropped to near zero.

The post Roxy’s Law is working! appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

New Mexicans have worked hard over the years to do right by the animals in our state. We have banned cockfighting, horse tripping and coyote-killing contests. We have made dog fighting a fourth-degree felony. We have created a dedicated funding stream for low-cost spay and neuter services.

And now it is time we finally stop allowing the brutal, indiscriminate use of traps on our public lands.

For a paltry $20 permit, members of a small and vocal minority are allowed to litter our amazing public lands with as many leg-hold, body-gripping and cage traps, snares and poisons as they want. There is no limit to the number of animals they can maim and kill. No requirement they take only a certain species or gender or quickly put a suffering animal out of its misery. They can leave their traps unchecked for up to two days as anything suffers in them.

And since Nov. 1, three pet dogs have been caught in these traps (including Jesse, a 2-year-old Dutch shepherd who suffered minimal injuries from a trap in the Jemez National Recreation Area on Thanksgiving, and Mahlia, a black lab who lost many of her toes in a trap in northern Santa Fe County). Meanwhile, a hiker in Doña Ana County found a gruesome pile of more than a dozen skinned coyote carcasses, many with obvious trapping wounds on their legs. A map from TrapFree New Mexico shows incidents of traps catching people, pets and the wrong kind of animal stretch across our national forest, BLM and state trust lands.

Put that on a tourism ad.

The window dressing of “updates” the feckless state Game and Fish Department adopted last year to make trapping more palatable was just that, and real reforms are past due.

Jessica Johnson of Animal Protection Voters New Mexico says that once again, her group and others will advocate for Roxy’s Law, aka the Wildlife Protection and Public Safety Act. (It is named for family dog Roxy, an 8-year-old blue heeler-mix that strangled to death in a neck snare at Santa Cruz Lake in 2018. Her owner desperately, unsuccessfully, tried to save her.)

Versions of this reasonable legislation died in the 2017 and 2019 legislative sessions, so it is important to emphasize again to lawmakers and the public alike that it:

• Pertains only to public land, not private property.
• Does not affect hunting with firearms, archery, fishing or falconry equipment.
• Still allows trapping of mice, rats, pack rats, gophers, prairie dogs, moles, voles, rock squirrels, birds or fish.
• Provides exceptions for bona fide scientific research as well as government agencies to prevent/mitigate threats to human health and safety and address livestock depredation.
• Allows cage traps to capture wildlife and feral and domesticated animals that cause damage to property, crops or livestock, as well as to recover a domesticated animal or trap-neuter-release a feral animal.
• Exempts members of federally recognized Indian nations, tribes and pueblos for religious or ceremonial purposes.

New Mexico has long been an outlier on trapping. Colorado and California have banned it statewide, and Arizona and Washington have banned it on public land. That’s because they recognize trapping is indiscriminate, cruel, threatens recreationists and tourists, kills our threatened and endangered species (at least eight Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico) and, because there are no bag limits, presents a real threat to our already threatened ecosystem.

Trapping is in no way “New Mexico True.” New Mexico needs to make 2021 the year it adds a ban on trapping on public lands to its important list of successful animal and wildlife legislation.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.

Read this Editorial in the Albuquerque Journal »

The post Albuquerque Journal Editorial: Nothing about traps is New Mexico True appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

Contacts:
Chris Smith, WildEarth Guardians, 505-395-6177, csmith@wildearthguardians.org
Jessica Johnson, Animal Protection Voters, 505-220-6656, jessica@apvnm.org

Private, commercial traps will be hidden across BLM, Forest Service, and State lands until mid-March

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—Sunday, November 1^st marks the beginning of the 2020-2021 commercial trapping season in New Mexico. Every year, November 1^st through March 15^th is when “protected furbearers”—species for which at least some regulation on manner or method of trapping exists—can be trapped and killed for pelts and fur, although some “unprotected” species can also be legally trapped year-round. During trapping season, an exponential increase of leghold traps, body-crushing traps, and strangulation snares will be placed on public lands across the state, maiming and killing domestic pets and native wildlife, including endangered species.

Last year, the New Mexico Game Commission made minor changes to the trapping regulations, but left most New Mexicans—especially rural residents—at risk. Trappers are not required to mark or indicate where dangerous traps are located. Further, no changes were made that would mitigate the cruelty experienced by trapped animals, nor stop the unlimited looting and commercial sale of public wildlife parts for private profit.

Every year, the start of trapping season brings up horrible memories for the unfortunate New Mexicans who have experienced the damage caused by traps firsthand.

“It’s almost that time of the year again, when any juniper or cedar on public lands may be used to rig a wire snare that kills pets and wildlife indiscriminately,” said Dave Clark, whose dog Roxy died in a strangulation snare on public lands. “It’s also the time of year when everyone can do something about that. Please consider the values of those for whom you vote.”

“By its very nature, trapping is indiscriminate. Wild species already under pressure suffer, and domestic animals for whom traps are not meant suffer, and sometimes die. Their owners also suffer their untimely and needless loss,” said Carolyn Fletcher, a New Mexico veterinarian. “To what end do we find this worthwhile, New Mexico? The profit of a few doesn’t compensate for the misery endured by many.”

“While there are special cases in which wildlife professionals should be able to use certain types of trapping to protect life, property or threatened or endangered species, recreational trapping, with its potential for mis-management of wildlife populations and mishaps with pet owners, should come to an end,” said Garrett VeneKlasen, northern conservation director with new Mexico Wild and political director of New Mexico Wild Action Fund. “As an avid hunter and conservationist, trapping gives a black eye to sportsmen’s/women’s reputation. I want the court of public opinion to view us as ethical, humane and responsible. Trapping doesn’t fit into this 21st century picture.”

“I’m forever haunted by my dog’s anguished yelps and cries with his paw clamped shut in a tight steel trap. I could not free him because my hands were disabled by freezing cold and bleeding knuckles from trying,” said Kathleen McDonald, whose dog was trapped in the Lincoln National Forest. “The sun was going down and I only had a weak cell signal making it hard to call for the help I needed. Traps are dangerous for animals and people.”

Along with many cases of family pets being injured and even killed in traps, non-target animals like black bears, ravens, and endangered Mexican gray wolves have also been caught and suffered in indiscriminate and cruel traps. Trappers rarely face any consequences for injuring or killing non-target animals. The trapper that killed Roxy, Mr. Clark’s dog, escaped conviction for his illegally set traps.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has no scientific population estimates for furbearers, and sets no limits on how many animals such as foxes, bobcats, beavers, badgers, coyotes, and ringtails a trapper can trap and kill. They are slaughtered freely without limit for private profit even as wildlife populations suffer through drought, climate change, and mass extinction.

Conservation and animal advocacy groups plan to introduce “Roxy’s Law” in the 2021 legislative session. The bill would prohibit private and commercial trapping on public lands across the state with important exemptions for human safety, scientific research, and trapping for tribal ceremonial purposes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made safe access to public lands exceptionally important to New Mexicans. Hidden, indiscriminate traps jeopardize safety and peace-of-mind for outdoor recreators. Trapped wildlife are often skinned on site, with carcasses left to rot in ditches. Arizona and Colorado both largely banned trapping on public lands in the mid 1990s.

Background:

Trapping on public lands is legal in New Mexico. There are no bag limits for furbearer species. The law does not require trap locations to be marked or signed, or for any warnings to be present. No gross receipts tax is levied on fur and pelts sold by trappers. No penalties exist for trappers who unintentionally trap non-target species including endangered species, protected species, domestic animals, pets, humans, or livestock.

No database or official record is kept by any public entity and no requirement exists that trappers report when they have captured a dog in their traps. TrapFree New Mexico has compiled known incidents on an interactive map in the absence of an official catalogue. The pattern these incidents follow is usually similar: dogs screaming and frantically biting at the person desperately trying to rescue them. Veterinary and even human medical treatment along with associated expenses are common, as are long-lasting psychological trauma to both human and animal victims.

The true toll that trapping takes on native wildlife is difficult to assess. Reporting requirements exist for some species, but not for often-trapped so-called “unprotected furbearers” like coyotes and skunks. Reporting accuracy is unverifiable and numbers do not adequately articulate the suffering and carnage that traps wreak on bobcats, foxes, imperiled Mexican gray wolves, coyotes, and other animals.

The almost singular excuse for the above-mentioned incidents is that trapping is necessary to control carnivore populations, but scientific studies do not support this assertion. In fact, scientific studies show that trapping and lethally removing carnivore species, like coyotes, often exacerbate conflicts such as those with livestock (see Using Coyotes to Protect Livestock. Wait. What?, Randy Comeleo, Oregon Small Farm News, Vol. XIII No. 2, p. 2, http://ow.ly/Pj8k30k3wTF (Spring 2018)).

Allowing trapping by a minuscule subset of the population using New Mexico’s public lands directly conflicts with one of the state’s most valuable economic strengths: outdoor recreation. As demonstrated by the recent New Mexico Outdoor Economics Conference in Las Cruces, the outdoor recreation economy in New Mexico is a current and future boon—diversifying and stabilizing the state’s economy while creating 99,000 direct jobs in the process. Outdoor recreation includes hiking, camping, wildlife viewing, hunting, horseback riding, angling, trail running, and bicycling. One study found that the benefits to local economies of a single bobcat alive are approximately 1000 times greater than all combined values from trapping.

Piles of dead animals discarded by public roadways—vividly demonstrating the thousands of wild animals taken from New Mexico’s diverse public landscapes for personal profit—do not bolster the economy or present the state in a beneficial light.

# # #

The post New Mexico public lands at risk as trapping season begins appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

There clearly has been inadequate consideration of the damaging proposal from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to allow concealed trapping on 95 percent of recreational public lands, which (need we be reminded) draw tourists and residents to New Mexico.

The governor and legislators must be aware that so much of our revenue is generated from tourism that is dependent on safe use of public lands. Isn’t that the state’s implicit promise in ads to attract tourism? And this tourist market can easily turn to enjoying nearby states where public land safety can be expected. Moreover, I would suggest that new residents are strongly attracted here for safe enjoyment of public land recreation.

New Mexico is great, but we should never forget that it’s competing with other states for these new residents and tourists who generate considerable direct and indirect contributions to the state economy. As this public trust is compromised by the state’s direct action to undoubtedly diminish safety, how many residents and what amount of tourism can political leaders claim is unnecessary?

State-endorsed danger to public land use constrains our most reliable revenue from tourism, risks discouraging current and future new residents, reduces state income, and diminishes use of one of the greatest natural resources that any state would desire. I am surprised that New Mexico leaders think we can afford to reject all this.

Finally and importantly, please note that I refrained from even discussing the great harm people and their beloved animal companions incur.

Susan Mertes moved to Santa Fe nine years ago from a career as an attorney and lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

Read this article in the Santa Fe New Mexican

The post MY VIEW: Trapping will damage tourism appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

Current regulations allow trappers to set as many traps and kill as many animals as they want for a fee of just $20. It is an absurd claim that unlimited, indiscriminate killing could be part of scientifically informed modern wildlife management. Polls shows that some 70% of New Mexicans oppose trapping on public lands. Our neighboring states of Arizona and Colorado banned traps 25 years ago and more than 100 countries worldwide have banned traps due to their extreme cruelty. Despite clearly articulated public opposition, the Game Department continues to promote this deadly activity.

The governor-appointed Game Commission and the Game Department it oversees continue to demonstrate a disturbing degree of disregard for their constituents, the people of New Mexico, the vast majority of whom are non-consumptive wildlife users. During a recent rule-making process, the Game Commission received thousands of comments requesting a ban on public land trapping. These requests have been flatly ignored. Wildlife policies that lack broad public support lack legitimacy. By ignoring public opinion, the Game Commission betrays core principles of good governance and the wildlife resource it exists to protect.

Endangered Mexican wolves continue to be caught in traps set for coyotes with disturbing frequency and devastating results. Since their reintroduction, at least 39 wolves, including pups, are known to have been caught, maimed or killed by traps. For a wild population of just 131 individuals, traps pose a grave threat to recovery. The Game Department is well aware of this, but refuses to close wolf recovery areas to trapping. Both wolves and coyotes are critical to ecological health. By allowing their destruction, the Game Department exhibits an obscene hostility for the recovery of endangered species and a profound disregard for basic ecology.

The Game Department portrays itself as the ultimate scientific and ethical authority over wildlife in New Mexico, but this is the same Game Department that did nothing to stop coyote killing contests. The state legislature had to step in and stop the slaughter. The Game Department states that only “fair chase” hunting is ethical, but killing trapped animals can hardly be considered fair chase. The Department claims to uphold the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, which states that wildlife should be protected from commercial exploitation. But the fur from animals trapped and killed in New Mexico is regularly sold in commercial statewide auctions. This is a direct violation of the wildlife ethics the Department claims to uphold.

Another trapping season is upon us. From Nov. 1 until March 15, an estimated 25,000 animals will die horrible, prolonged deaths in icy, limb-crushing steel jaw traps and strangulation snares. This wanton waste of wildlife serves no constructive purpose and is obscenely out of place in modern society; 99.9% of New Mexicans do not trap and do not want their wildlife reduced to skinned, rotting carcass piles. Tradition can be no excuse for abuse. Given the merciless, indiscriminate destruction the traps inflict, banning them from public lands is both sorely needed and long overdue.

Governance should help us solve our problems, not perpetuate them. When a state agency actively ignores its constituents, there’s a real problem. This is the governor’s appointed Game Commission. If you don’t like their policies, the governor needs to hear from you: https://www.governor.state.nm.us/contact-the-governor/.

Read this Guest Column in the Albuquerque Journal »

The post Speak out to oppose trapping on public lands appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

On November 14, just one week later, a Mexican gray wolf pup was caught and injured in a leghold trap that had been set in the Gila National Forest. A second wolf pup was later spotted with a piece of another leghold trap still attached to its injured paw.

Nine months earlier, four other wolves were caught in traps in the same area. One of those wolves died, while another had its leg amputated. The third wolf had two legs caught in two different traps. It and the fourth wolf were unharmed and ultimately released back into the wild.

The most recent incident prompted renewed calls by conservation groups for the state to ban trapping on public lands. State law allows private trapping on public lands, a practice that WildEarth Guardians’ southern Rockies wildlife advocate Chris Smith described as archaic and at odds with the state’s recent MoU.

Smith said the last month has demonstrated the department’s inconsistency on wolf recovery. “We want to recover wolves, we’re going to rejoin the Mexican wolf recovery effort, but our policies on the ground are going to continue to harm wolves,” Smith said. “That’s a big inconsistency that the department has to be dealt with.”

Residents speak out against trapping

Smith and other advocates have been working across multiple fronts to ban trapping on public lands for a number of years. TrapFree NM, a coalition of conservation groups like WildEarth Guardians that are advocating for bans on trapping, has been organizing at the community level on the issue since 2011.

And public support for the ban across the state seems to be growing. A 2015 poll found that 69 percent of New Mexicans surveyed said they oppose steel-jawed leghold traps or snare traps. More recently, residents have brought their concerns about trapping to official state bodies like the legislature and the Game and Fish department.

The issue reached a fever pitch during the state legislative session earlier this year, when a bill to ban trapping on public lands was passed through two committees before dying on the House floor. The bill was dubbed Roxy’s Law after a pet dog that was caught and suffocated to death as her owner frantically tried to release the trap.

The proposed ban has been introduced to the legislature in some form for the past two years, but Roxy’s bill advanced further through the House than any previous trapping ban bill, which Smith said was encouraging.

Conservation organizations are now focusing their efforts on the state Game Commission, which is currently considering rule changes governing trapping. TrapFree NM released an interactive map detailing incidents were companion animals and endangered species have been caught in traps. It identifies over 78 trapping incidents that have occurred since 2015. Op-eds appeared in newspapers across the state that decried the practice and recounted details of personal experiences with traps and pets, while residents who have had pets trapped attended public comment meetings to recount their experiences and express their support of a ban.

TrapFree NM released this trapping map in November. The map uses data from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, TrapFree New Mexico incident reports, and media coverage. Source: TrapFree NM

Game and Fish held four public meetings across the state in October and collected 2,400 public comments on the issue. Amidst an outpouring of support for a trapping ban, Smith said the department’s proposed rule changes still fall short.

“What we’ve seen over the last two months is that there’s a tiny subset of the New Mexico population that supports trapping, and their opinion, for a number of reasons, carries more weight than 70 percent of the population in the minds of the Department of Game and Fish staff and the Game Commissioners,” Smith said. “What’s the point of a big public process, with nearly 2,500 public comments and all these hearings, if there’s not going to be any changes made based on those comments?”

New rules for trapping furbearers

A few months after Roxy’s bill died in the state House, Game and Fish released a set of proposed changes to the state’s furbearer and trapping rule. Those changes include adding more restrictions to where trappers can place land set traps and banning traps outright in four areas of public lands near Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.

Those areas were chosen “where the potential for human recreation and conflict could have existed,” said Stewart Liley, chief of NMDGF’s Wildlife Management Division. One of the areas is the Sandia Ranger District of the National Forest, where a few pets have been trapped, Liley said. The new rules would also prohibit traps being set within a half-mile radius from any designated trailhead on public land.

“So in effect we’re closing down those points of access for high recreation in to any designated trailhead across the state, whether that be the BLM or Forest Service or any of those kind of places on public land,” Liley said. “I would say that’s one of the bigger closures.”

But Liley pointed to the proposed mandatory “due care” provisions for trapping as being a key component to the new rules aimed at helping Mexican gray wolves. Due care refers to steps taken by the trapper to ensure the animal isn’t hurt, including following all guidelines and recommendations provided by the department, taking precautions to ensure the animal cannot escape the trap, and reporting the capture of the animal to the interagency field team.

“It was in the recommendation guidelines in our previous rule. We are actually proposing making it mandatory for every trapper across the state, regardless if it’s in a Mexican wolf area or not,” Liley said. He added that such provisions mirror requirements used at Fish and Wildlife Service to capture wolves for radio collaring.

“We’re making that mandatory across the state for people to follow those provisions so that we can get into best management practices, and lessen the potential for injury of the animals for when they are caught,” he said.

Enforcement of the state’s trapping rules is another question. Protocol requires a trapper to notify the authorities if a protected species is caught. But trappers are less incentivized to report these episodes when they are engaging in illegal behavior.

Ty Jackson, captain of field operations for NMDGF, said the department uses a variety of methods to enforce trapping rules.

“Our officers receive training in how to find trap locations, and our officers live in these communities, so often they know these individuals personally, and they know when people are out and where they’re going,” Jackson told NM Political Report. “Obviously we don’t catch every single thing. We rely on the public to report those.”

Both Liley and Jackson said the public should promptly report any trapping incidents to NMDGF when they occur to help combat illegal trapping activity.

“We receive very few reports a year [of trapping incidents]. Sometimes it’s less than 10, sometimes it less than five,” Liley said.

“From a law enforcement perspective, that has been the largest hindrance to these investigations,” Jackson said. “A lot of times they’re not reported until way after the fact, and we can’t verify anything, or whether the event even occurred.”

Investigation is ongoing in wolf pups case

Illegal trapping activity occurred in some of the recent high-profile trapping incidents, like the death of Roxy. In that case, a man was charged with 34 criminal counts for illegal trapping. All of those charges were later dropped by a judge due to mistakes made by Game and Fish during the investigation.

Legal traps can also catch unintended or protected animals. The traps that caught the four Mexican gray wolves in February, for example, were all legal. Trapping opponents argue that no amount of rules or regulations can fully prevent pets and protected species from traps.

Legal or not, trapping incidents can have outsized impacts for the Mexican gray wolf species, whose population is currently just 131 individuals across New Mexico and Arizona. A total of 39 Mexican gray wolves have been caught, injured or killed in traps since the species was reintroduced in the state in 1998.

“Some of those wolves have been fine, some of those have died, some have had amputations, and some of them, their fate is unknown,” Smith told NM Political Report. “That’s a serious impact on this tiny population.”

As for the two wolf pups, Jackson said the department is now conducting an investigation into the incident.

“We believe that there was some illegal activity, but we can’t talk about the investigation,” he said.

A Fish and Wildlife spokesperson told NM Political Report that the caught pup was treated and released back into the wild on December 5. The agency is still trying to locate the second pup, but said the most recent sighting of the wolf indicated the trap has fallen off the animal’s injured paw.

The state Game Commission will formally vote to accept the furbearer trapping rule changes in early January.

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish asks that anyone involved in a trapping incident to report it to the Operation Game Thief line at 1-800-432-4263, or online. Reports can be made anonymously. 

Read this article in the NM Political Report »

The post Inconsistency at Game and Fish: After state rejoins wolf recovery program, two pups caught in leghold traps appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

RESERVE, NM – An endangered wild wolf pup in the Gila National Forest has more than the usual number of threats to his survival right now. A leghold trap being used on public lands became detached from the trap anchor and the lobo is on the loose with their foot in the trap. Another male pup was also caught and is in captivity at a medical facility awaiting release into the wild.

“It’s business as usual here in New Mexico with endangered species being caught in leghold traps,” said Chris Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “But, the New Mexico Game Commission is standing by our state’s archaic trapping laws even while a wolf pup is running around with a trap on its leg.”

A total of 39 Mexican wolves have been caught, injured, maimed, or killed by traps since the recovery program began in 1998. Recreational and commercial trapping is legal on nearly all public lands in New Mexico. Endangered Mexican wolves and domestic dogs are frequently caught and sometimes maimed or even killed. The New Mexico Game Commission is currently considering very minor changes to the trapping rule that wildlife advocates say are inadequate. Legislation to ban private trapping on public lands passed two House legislative committees in New Mexico this year.

“The practice of trapping is as outdated as the mindset that vilifies predators instead of recognizing their important place on the landscape,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “Every effort must be made to free this young wolf from this painful trap.”

“The scenario of a wild wolf pulling the trap from its mooring to escape with the trap still attached to their paw has played out before,” said Mary Katherine Ray, Wildlife Chair for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. “With blood circulation cut off especially now as a cold winter storm rolls in, it almost always results in amputation if not something worse. The senseless suffering this animal is now enduring by legally allowing trapping is indecent.”

“The captive lobo needs to be returned to his family as soon as possible,” said Maggie Howell, executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center. “Wolves are highly social animals, much like humans, with the capacity to love, worry, and grieve. To have a family member disappear like this, a pup of the year no less, must have the family very worried. It is especially sad to think of him alone in a cage in during the same week when we’re all gathering with our families.”

A map of New Mexico’s trapping accidents is available online: https://trapfreenm.org/new-mexico-trapping-incidents-map/

The post Wild wolf pup found dragging leghold trap in Gila appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

Nogal resident Kathleen McDonald had climbed about 100 yards into the Lincoln National Forest when Jasper, her Golden retriever Jasper suddenly began yelping and crying.

“I went running down and he was about 200 feet away,” McDonald said. “I was shocked to see him stuck in a trap. He was trying to get out of it and chewing on his leg.

“I finally got it open, it took me about 10 minutes. His paw immediately swelled. He limped on it and hopped down. It was so upsetting. He was whimpering and scared.”

The 2013 incident is one of many highlighted by a recently released interactive map released by TrapFree New Mexico, a coalition of 14 advocacy groups that oppose trapping on public lands, which pinpoints animal trap encounters by domestic pets and other non-target creatures in 22 counties across New Mexico.

The map shows seven incidents in the Alamogordo-Mescalero-Lincoln County area, three near Farmington, one near Carlsbad and eight in the Las Cruces area.

McDonald said a game official who checked the trap that injured Jasper six years ago told her the trapper later was fined $40, because he had not checked the trap within the 24-hour period required. But the officer also warned that she could have been fined, if she had removed the trap, and that she should have kept Jasper on a leash, she said.

“The laws all are on the trappers’ side,” she said. “It’s absurd.”

A dog must be on a leash in developed campgrounds or recreation sites, said Lincoln National Forest public information officer Laura Rabon Monday.

“But outside of those areas, we revert to county ordinance. If it says dogs must be leashed off private property, then dogs must be leashed on the Lincoln National Forest. The national forest covers five different counties, so the answer isn’t simple.”

Lincoln County Sheriff Robert Shepperd said the county has an ordinance governing dogs running at large.

“They must be under the control of the owner with commands,” he said. “If they don’t obey commands and run at large, they must be leashed.”

Trapping for fur bearing animals is allowed throughout the national forest, except for beavers, said Public Information Officer James Pittman with New Mexico Game and Fish.

A ban of traps on public land in New Mexico is long overdue, McDonald said.

The strangulation death of a dog named Roxy at Santa Cruz Lake in November 2018 renewed efforts to ban traps on public lands and brought together the TrapFree New Mexico coalition.

State Reps. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) and Bobby Gonzales (D-Taos) sponsored a bill to outlaw commercial trapping on public land called “Roxy’s Law” in honor of the 8-year-old heeler mix that died on a recreation area of the Bureau of Land Management.

In 2019, “Roxy’s Law” passed through two House committees, but did not receive a vote on the House floor. The bill won’t be introduced during the 2020 short session, but will likely be reintroduced in 2021, according to Chris Smith with WildEarth Guardians, a member of the coalition.

Trap incident map

Earlier this month, conservation and animal protection groups as part of the TrapFree New Mexico coalition released a map detailing trapping incidents around the state.

“The map shows trapping’s toll all across New Mexico, demonstrating that trapping is an ongoing problem for companion animals, endangered species, and law enforcement alike, according to information from the coalition,” a statement from the coalition noted.

The trapping incident map includes descriptions, locations, dates and photos of events involving family dogs, Mexican gray wolves, and illegally set traps based on data from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, TrapFree New Mexico incident reports and media coverage.

The map shows:

• Trapping incidents have occurred in 22 counties in New Mexico
• More than 75 incidents involved domestic animals, some with no source cited
• In the 2015-2018 trapping seasons, 23 documented illegal trapping incidents
• Other incidents include outdoor recreationists finding dead, dying, or injured animals suffering in traps.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is considering rule changes, according to information from the department. The proposal includes closing less than 1 percent of public lands to most traps on land, some technical requirements on how to set traps, mandatory trapper education and increased setbacks from trailheads, but not from trails or roads, according to TrapFree New Mexico and the Game and Fish department.

The proposal also calls for expanding year-round trapping seasons for raccoons and nutria, and increasing the time frame for a trapper to check on underwater traps.

The coalition characterized the suggested changes as “trivial,” contending they would do nothing to address the majority of the incidents documented on the map.

“This map highlights the reality of trapping: It is indiscriminate, cruel, and has a major, negative impact on people and animals throughout New Mexico,” said Mikaila Wireman, who created the map for WildEarth Guardians.

“The negligible changes proposed by the Department of Game and Fish do nothing to address the real problems that trapping imposes. Until traps and snares are banned on all public lands, devastating confrontations with traps will carry on and this map will only continue to grow.”

Blue jay caught in trap

Another view of traps

Ranchers in Lincoln County annually pay toward a predator control fund that is included in the county’s budget under external agency requests. In 2019-2020 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s predator control program budget request was $34,660, which is supplemented by a per head of cattle tax paid by ranchers of 75 cents.

“Predator management is key to the success of any livestock operation and most agricultural operations,” said Caren Cowan, director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. “It’s a good method, because it targets the offending predators. It is safe to be done, contrary to what others might say.

“Trappers have to be licensed and many of the incidents we hear about are from nonlicensed trappers. Trappers get a black eye from those kind of people and 99 percent of the trappers obey the laws. They do trapper education. It is  just a part of the hunting, fishing, ranching and agricultural culture of New Mexico.”

Banning traps on public land would remove a key element of predator control, Cowan said.

“Land in New Mexico is comingled and checker-boarded. Sometimes pastures may contain at least two statuses of land, federal and private or private and state. But most ranches are made up of all three classes of lands,” she said. “So when you stop it on one class of land, you are causing serious damage to the landowner, who can no longer protect his livestock.”

Chance Thedford, president of the New Mexico Trappers Association, contended what is described on the map is an inaccurate account of incidents throughout the state.

“It’s statistically proven that the chance of a hiker or their pet being injured is more likely to come by a snake bite rather than a legally placed trap,” Thedford said.

“Ranchers in New Mexico have never been able to trap wolves on private or public land,” he said. “A continued false attack on trapping has resulted in inaccurate/false reporting by local news outlets due to lack of knowledge and education on the subject.”

The New Mexico Trappers Association strongly advocates for and promotes wise use of trapping and trapping education, Thedford said, adding that the group’s motto is “Promoting Wise Use.”

Members were angered about the death of Roxy and outraged at the decision not to pursue charges against the individual identified as the illegal trapper, he said, adding that the incident left a black eye on the trapping community.

“We continue to see the blatant disregard for a long existing law that requires pets to be restrained on public land,” he said. Instead, those lawfully trapping have been attacked, he contended.

TrapFree officials disagree, stating that trapping conflicts with the state’s valuable outdoor recreation industry and that scientific studies show that trapping and lethally removing carnivore species, like coyotes often exacerbate conflicts such as those with livestock.

They referenced “Using Coyotes to Protect Livestock. Wait What?” from the Oregon Small Farm News.

“The true toll that trapping takes on native wildlife is difficult to know. Reporting requirements exist for some species, but not for often-trapped so-called ‘unprotected furbearers’ like coyotes and skunks,” according to the information supplied by TrapFree New Mexico. 

Read this article in the Ruidoso News »

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)- Several New Mexico animal rights and conservation groups are behind an online map pinpointing illegal trapping incidents in the state.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the TrapFree New Mexico map is up and running. It includes 23 documented incidents of trapping violations in the last three years.

Those behind the project tell the New Mexican they hope the map draws attention to the issue and encourages others to report any incidents of illegal trapping.

The TrapFree New Mexico Coalition is made up of 14 groups including Wildlife Conservation Advocacy Southwest, WildEarth Guardians, the Southwest Environmental Center, Sierra Club, Sandia Mountain BearWatch, Project Coyote, New Mexico Wild, Mountain Lion Foundation, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, Endangered Species Coalition, Conservation Voters New Mexico, Center for Biological Diversity, Born Free USA, and Animal Protection Voters.

Read the article and watch the video on KRQE.com »

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE INTERACTIVE NEW MEXICO TRAPPING INCIDENTS MAP »

The post Coalition unveils interactive map of illegal trapping in New Mexico appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

The TrapFree New Mexico map, unveiled Monday, includes 23 documented incidents of trapping violations between 2015 and 2018, and says at least 78 pets were reported snared in traps during that period.

Most of those animals survived with wounds, but an Española dog named Roxy gained national attention in November 2018 after being caught in a snare and fatally strangled while walking with her owner at Santa Cruz Lake.

In January 2017, an endangered Mexican gray wolf was caught in a commercial trap and released, according to a news release on the mapping initiative.

“The wolf was recaptured 19 days later and was euthanized due to extensive damage and necrosis on the trapped foot,” the release said.

The map comes just weeks after a Santa Fe County Magistrate Court judge dismissed the case against a Chimayó man who faced 34 counts of illegal trapping, including the one that took Roxy’s life. The judge ruled that the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish had failed to serve the man, Marty Cordova, with a search warrant and failed to preserve evidence in the case.

Chris Smith of Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that created the TrapFree map, said, “The map is equal parts of awareness and empowerment.”

He said he hopes it draws attention to the issue and encourages people to report any incidents of illegal trapping.

The information used in the map came from several sources, Smith said, including a public records document from Game and Fish, data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, media reports and people “self-reporting to TrapFree New Mexico.”

“Of course, we can’t verify everything, but I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the self-reporting data,” he said. “Could people abuse it? Yes. Do I suspect they will? I hope not.”

The incident reports on the map include violations of trapping laws, such as one trapper’s failure to check traps every day at a site north of Carlsbad, and incidents in which pets and people have been caught in traps.

Roxy’s death led to legislative efforts earlier this year to ban trapping on state trust land, but the measure failed. Smith said he did not think lawmakers would introduce such a bill again when the Legislature convenes in January because the 2020 session will last just 30 days and focus primarily on the state budget.

State Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, who introduced Roxy’s Law last year, said in an email Monday, “We’re not planning on reintroducing trapping legislation in the upcoming short session, but I’m sure it will come back in the future. There is broad public support for banning this cruel practice in New Mexico.”

He said he was “appalled” by the dismissal of charges against Cordova stemming from Roxy’s death.

“If someone dropped the ball, they need to figure out how that happened and identify concrete steps to make sure it never happens again,” he said.

Read the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican »

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