Group launches initiative to ban trapping in Montana


Unfiltered By Anja, Unfiltered 1-05-10

 
 

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Tuesday, January 05 2010 @ 01:56 PM MST
Group launches initiative to ban trapping in Montana
Tuesday, January 05 2010 @ 12:51 PM MST
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 8
by Anja Heister and Connie Poten

Montana Trap-Free Public Lands has officially launched its website, http://www.mttrapfree.org . The website provides information about the proposed Montana Trap-Free Public Lands Citizens’ Initiative 160 (I-160) to make Montana’s public lands trap-free, including the actual ballot language as well as ways to help get it on the ballot for voters in the November 2010 election.

The initiative prohibits recreational trapping of fur-bearing animals, game animals, migratory birds, upland game birds, predatory animals and certain non-game wildlife except for scientific and propagation purposes or for health and safety. Employees of schools, public buildings and buildings on public lands will continue to be able to use traps for health and safety reasons. Trapping on private lands, 65 percent of Montana, will not be affected by this initiative.

Montanans For Trap-Free Public Lands (MTFPL) have found that traps undermine the safety of public land and are an unethical way to pursue wildlife because they kill and maim indiscriminately, cause wanton waste and provide no fair chase. Traps also undermine sound wildlife management because no reliable data exists on what animals are trapped, claim Montanans For Trap-Free Public Lands. Further, they say, sensitive and threatened species are at risk of extinction in Montana due to traps, including marten, otter, lynx, wolverine, fisher and swift fox.

Trapping brings $94,000 to the state annually, compared to $65 million hunting and fishing bring, and $376 million wildlife watching brings. By taking away the trapping pressure, the state would allow sensitive species to revive, attracting more revenue from wildlife watching, a major source of income to Montana.

MTFPL also asserts that traps are cruel. Animals chew off their legs or ‘wring off’ by twisting their bodies until the limb is separated from the joint to escape. Animals suffer for days from fear and pain until a trapper clubs them to death. The American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, the World Veterinary Association, and the National Animal Control Association have all condemned the steel-jawed leg-hold trap, the most commonly used trap, as inhumane.

For background information on the issue of trapping on public lands, and to see where reported traps are, please visit http://www.footloosemontana.org .

I-160 needs 25,000 signatures from across the state of Montana to qualify for the ballot. The deadline for gathering signatures is June 16, 2010.
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