It was the passionate work of the TrapFree New Mexico coalition, the genuine leadership of state legislators, the courageous testimony of trap victims from around the state and, ultimately, the governor’s signature that turned this tragedy – and countless others like it – into a positive outcome for New Mexico. Roxy’s Law will make public lands safer for everyone.

It is likely that millions of animals in New Mexico have been tortured, maimed and killed by cruel, limb-crushing traps and strangulation snares. This indiscriminate slaughter continued for so long because one state agency – the Department of Game and Fish – kept it going despite massive, clearly stated opposition. This self-serving department operates with state authority, but without any real accountability to the constituents it is supposed to serve, the people of New Mexico. The behavior of the Game Department illustrates a basic failure of governance in our state.

With its relentless “hunting is conservation” propaganda, the Game Department essentially operates New Mexico as a pay-to-kill game farm, selling the state’s wildlife as “products” on its website. Let’s be clear: killing wildlife is not conserving wildlife. This is the same state agency that did nothing to stop the obscene coyote-killing contests. The state Legislature had to step in and stop that slaughter.

The Game Commission that ostensibly oversees the Game Department has positions for seven commissioners, only one of whom represents conservation interests. Commissioners are appointed by the governor, but are not required to have any training or expertise in wildlife, biological sciences or public trust duties, and can be removed at any time without cause. This is a purely political exercise that is subject to abuse. Wildlife management should never be politicized.

Wildlife is a public trust in which all New Mexicans have a legitimate interest, not just those who hunt and fish. But the 95% of New Mexicans who do not hunt or fish are systematically excluded from state wildlife policy. This arrangement is profoundly anti-democratic and lacks basic legitimacy.

Basic components of good governance include accountability, inclusivity, responsiveness and transparency. New Mexico state wildlife management lacks all four. The Game Department’s backward policies are badly out of step with mainstream society and show little sign of improving. There is no reason we should allow any state agency to pursue an agenda that is clearly at odds with what most New Mexicans want for the state’s wildlife: respectful coexistence. Without deep reform and repurposing of state wildlife management, we can and should expect the abuse to continue.

Banning traps, snares and poisons on public lands is a victory for basic decency in our relationship with each other and what remains of our wildlife. There is no reason we should tolerate the cruel, indiscriminate killing of our companion animals or wildlife. There is no excuse for repeating the mistakes and abuses of the past, no matter how longstanding.

Read this piece in the Albuquerque Journal »

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Boston, MA – A coalition of leading wildlife protection organizations is applauding MassWildlife staff and the Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife Board for their vote today to ban wildlife killing contests in the Commonwealth.

The vote will bring an end to events like the ones recently held on Cape Cod and in Granby, in which participants competed to kill the largest, smallest, or the greatest number of animals for cash and prizes. Winners of wildlife killing contests often proudly post photos and videos on social media that show them posing with piles of dead animals, often before disposing of the animals in “carcass dumps” away from the public eye. When proposing this ban in July 2019, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife noted growing outrage in Massachusetts about these cruel and unethical contests.

Read the article from Project Coyote

The post Massachusetts outlaws destructive wildlife killing contests appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

If we cannot agree that claims made about them should be rooted in the best available science, then there is little point in debating the killing contest issue. Science is objective fact — it does not matter where a person lives or his or her occupation when it comes to the making of factual claims.

For more than 100 years, what amounts to an extermination campaign has been waged against coyotes across the United States. Unlike wolves and grizzly bears, however, coyotes are more widespread now than ever, and even have expanded their range to include many cities. In these places, though, they mostly subsist on urban rodents and discarded refuse — arguably, they have simply expanded their rural role as nature’s cleanup crew.

People in cities, like ranchers outside of them, can take effective non-lethal measures to minimize conflict. The science also shows that non-lethal deterrents are more effective in both urban and rural habitats.

Biologically, the distribution and abundance of native carnivores depends on the availability of their prey. Coyotes limit the number of rodents and rabbits, whose reproductive potential is staggering. (Collectively, these small herbivores eat an astounding amount of forage, thereby competing directly with livestock for available fodder — only 41 jackrabbits can eat the same amount of food as a cow.)

In this way, coyotes are important to balancing the ecosystem so plants can get a break and more food is available for other species. Scientific studies have shown that places with unexploited, natural coyote populations are more biologically diverse than places where they are persecuted. Studies of coyote diets show they eat mostly rodents, rabbits, insects, juniper berries and carrion, not domestic animals.

Moreover, places where coyotes are not killed by humans are not overrun with them. Scientific research shows that coyotes effectively limit their own numbers. How? When undisrupted, coyotes establish cohesive family groups with a dominant breeding pair that defend their territory and keep other coyotes out, often killing them. The dominant pair suppresses breeding among subordinate group members. When a member of the dominant pair is killed, established groups break up, and a breeding free-for-all ensues — a phenomenon called compensatory reproduction — and the population density can actually increase.

In hunted populations, the number of surviving pups that must be fed by the dominant pair and the number of transient individuals may increase. These factors may predispose more coyotes to target livestock. Therefore, more indiscriminate killing is not the solution; more than 70 credentialed scientists have signed a letter agreeing to these empirical facts. They have put their reputations as unbiased and objective researchers on the line. We would welcome a summary of the scientific facts in support of Woods’ claims, but we don’t believe they exist.

Clearly, killing contests are not an effective solution to humans’ real or perceived conflicts with coyotes. Neither are indiscriminate trapping or poisoning campaigns. Thankfully, as a species, they have been resilient in the face of undeserved persecution because nature without the songs of coyotes would be sadly impoverished and incomplete.

Mary Katherine Ray has a degree in biology from New Mexico State University and has lived in the outback of Socorro County in ranching country alongside coyotes and for many years. She is the wildlife chairwoman for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. David Parsons is a retired wildlife biologist formerly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a science adviser to Project Coyote. He lives in Albuquerque.

Read the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican »

The post Telling the scientific truth about coyotes appeared first on TrapFree New Mexico.

• If you find a wild animal caught in a trap, you can neither free it nor put it out of its misery.
• You can kill as many non-game animals – porcupines, prairie dogs, rabbits, ground squirrels, Himalayan tahrs, skunks, feral hogs, bobcats and coyotes – as you like without a permit, sometimes for cash and fabulous prizes.

Just what does this say about our state?

New Mexico’s government-sponsored animal cruelty came to light again this week when a Placitas man released a fox from a foot-hold trap. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish told Gary Miles, the founder and owner of Placitas Animal Rescue, who responded to a runner’s call about the fox, that he could be arrested for being in possession of the fox.

Read the Editorial in the Albuquerque Journal:
https://www.abqjournal.com/1117016/trapping-killing-contests-should-have-no-place-in-nm.html

Coyote killing contests in New Mexico

Fox in leg trap near an unpaved section of NM Highway 165 about a half-mile west of the Sandia Man Cave. Photo courtesy: Lauri Dodge

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