New Mexicans want safe, trap-free public lands!
Trap Free New Mexico is a coalition of citizens, conservation organizations and animal welfare groups who oppose the cruel, damaging, and dangerous practice of trapping in New Mexico. Under-regulated and outdated, traps put citizens, pets, and non-target species at risk, including the endangered Mexican gray wolf. We seek to ban traps in New Mexico for the sake of public safety and New Mexico’s native wildlife.
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News & Updates
Judge: Challenge to cougar trapping may proceed
A federal magistrate judge is allowing a lawsuit that asserts a state wildlife agency’s decision to open a cougar trapping season on public lands violates the Endangered Species Act to proceed. The cougar trapping season, which began Nov. 1 and ends March 31, is the...
ABQ Journal Editorial: 3 wildlife bills cost zero, provide moral high ground
There is a trio of wildlife bills proposed this legislative session that would cost the state – and thus taxpayers – nothing in cash while earning them the moral high ground when it comes to respecting New Mexico’s wildlife and ecosystems, which belong to those same...
Cull of the Wild: The Truth behind Trapping
A provocative exposé of the corrupt and inhumane trapping industry that kills between four and five million animals annually, perpetuated indiscriminately by the Wildlife Services arm of the US government.
Breaking News: Cougar Trapping Season Has Started
While APNM’s state and federal lawsuits are still ongoing, the legal process can take months or years—and the cougar trapping carnage has now begun. Starting November 1 of this year—for the first time in nearly five decades—millions of acres of New Mexico’s private...
Tragedy for a Dog and Her Family Proves Traps Have No Place in Our State
Article in Making Tracks, Winter 2016 Issue In August 2016, APNM’s Cruelty Case Manager was alerted to an extreme animal cruelty case in which two missing dogs in Taos were found severely injured, caught in cruel leg-hold traps on a neighbor’s property. Both were...
Albuquerque Journal Editorial: Another 4-legged reason NM should ban traps
Just 80 feet from the road to Sandia Crest. In view of a picnic table and a popular hiking trail. And in the path of a family pet named Cub. This past weekend, Cub stepped into a metal leg-hold trap. Read the article in the Albuquerque Journal
Owner rushes to save dog caught in jaw trap near popular trail
By Chris Quintana / Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer CIBOLA NATIONAL FOREST – John Ussery and his 25-pound dog Cub were finishing a hike in the Cibola National Forest on Saturday when Ussery heard “terrible screaming.” Ussery and a friend rushed from the road and...
How to Release Your Dog from a Leg Hold Trap
Born Free USA Trapping Investigation: Victims of Vanity II
Five Years Later, Cruel Indifference Continues Over the course of the 2015-2016 trapping season, Born Free USA conducted a follow-up investigation to Victims of Vanity: our landmark investigation in 2011 that exposed the dark, brutal world of trapping. Since the...
Predator Control Should Not be a Shot in the Dark
Livestock owners traditionally use various non-lethal and lethal methods to protect their domestic animals from wild predators. However, many of these methods are implemented without first considering experimental evidence of their effectiveness in mitigating...