Trapping: SB 672 Is A Good Idea

By Taz Alago, Unfiltered 4-11-07

The use of leg- and body-hold traps remains in wide use in Oregon, with well over 20,000 animals trapped each year. Under current ODFW regulations, animals can, and do, remain in a trap for from 48 hours to 30 days. SB 672, which is in the Oregon Senate Environmental and Natural Resource Committee, would reduce the time allowed between checking traps to 24 hours. The reason for a 24 hour check time is because these types of traps are so inherently cruel that every measure should be taken to reduce the time any animal spends in one. Furthermore, studies have shown over and over again that for every targeted animal caught, two or three non-targeted animals are trapped, and if they are released within 24 hours, they may escape death or maiming.

Opponents claim this bill would place too great a burden on wildlife agents, especially by requiring that only licensed trappers can check traps. However, under ODFW regulations any landowner can obtain a free license to trap furbearers, so this is not a very onerous requirement and would not stop a landowner from checking traps set on his property, or from setting traps himself.

It is worth noting the exact nature of these traps. A leg-hold trap, even the "humane" type used in Oregon, can cause serious damage through loss of circulation and tissue damage, not to speak of the injuries caused by the animal's desperate efforts to escape, which can include dislocated joints, limbs chewed off or mauled, and very often broken teeth and injured jaws resulting from attacking the trap. I won't mention the effects of dehydration, physical and emotional anguish, injuries sustained while fighting off other animals, or the results of a foot being immobilized in below zero cold for long hours or even days.

The other traps commonly used are snares and Conibear traps. These are designed to kill, the first by strangulation and the second by breaking the animal's neck. Often they do this, but often they don't. If the animal is the wrong size or the trap doesn't strike exactly as it's supposed to, the animal suffers terribly and the injuries are horrific. And death can be long in coming.

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