More information on the Montana Trap-Free Public Lands Initiative (I-160)

A group named Montanans for Efficient Wildlife Management (MEWM) has organized to oppose the Montana Trap-Free Public Lands Initiative, I-160.  They have misrepresented the initiative, so it’s necessary to toss the baloney and get to the facts. 

I-160, if passed by the voters of Montana, would prohibit trapping on public lands, “except as allowed for scientific and propagation purposes or for the actions of government in protecting the safety and health of citizens.”  

MEWM avoids what makes trapping unacceptable today:  Trapping is torture.  Nobody is entitled to endanger other people’s safety or to be cruel to animals.  Nobody has the right to kill endangered species—it’s a criminal offense.  Everyone has the right to use public lands safely.

I-160 does not, as MEWM claims, require law enforcement to remove problem animals from city parks, schools, golf courses, alleys or buildings on leased land.  Any state worker can set traps for health and safety on any public lands. Problem rodents except for muskrats and beaver can be trapped by anyone.  Trapping on private land, 65 percent of Montana, will not be affected by I-160.

Montanans for Trap-Free Public Lands is not an animal rights group.  It is citizens who have compiled overwhelming evidence that traps undermine the safety of adults, children and pets using public lands.  Tens of thousands of baited and concealed traps are strewn from roadways to remote mountaintops; traps for certain species can be anywhere, anytime, unlicensed. One $30 furbearer license covers unlimited traps.  Any creature can stride into them.  As a trapper says, “It’s like Christmas, you never know what you’ll find.”  For every target animal caught, it is documented that two others are killed and discarded.

The anguish caused by trapping is indisputable.  What would it take for you to chew off your leg?  Better than being clubbed to death, or stomped on until one’s lungs collapse.  This goes against all ethics; there is no fair chase, no clean, quick kill, plenty of wanton waste. 

Trapping brings in $94,000 annually to the state.  Compare that to the $226 million fishing brings, the $310 million hunting brings, and the whopping $500 million wildlife watching brings to the state.  Yet we’re allowing the most wonderful, rare and reclusive animals to be trapped out.  Five celebrated Montana species are now hanging by a thread—lynx, wolverine, fisher, marten and otter.  In every case, traps are the leading cause for their steep decline.

MEWM predicts an apocalyptic invasion of mammals that will flood the land, kill birds and fish and plunge us into plague if I-160 passes.  In fact, trapping contributes nothing to wildlife management, disease control or population control. 

The least efficient way to protect livestock on public lands is trapping because it is indeterminate. Many non-target animals are killed, and their offspring die as a result.  No matter how many coyotes are trapped, their population remains constant.  They are self-regulating, as are many species.  One would have to kill 70 percent of the coyotes to put a dent in the population, a slaughter that has never been achieved.

Upstream on public lands, beaver—a favorite trapping target—build dams that create nurseries for fish, birds and other wildlife.  These dams raise aquifer levels and store water for irrigation and drinking; they sustain healthy watersheds and wetlands, mitigating drought and acting as natural firebreaks.  Flooding problems most often occur on private land. If flooding occurs on public land, I-160 promotes trapping for health and safety.

If predators threaten the survival of upland game birds by eating too many eggs, I-160 allows trapping under the scientific and propagation clause.

MEWM clangs the bell of rampant disease if public lands are trap-free, but it’s a false alarm. “FWP regulates furbearer trapping seasons for recreational harvest opportunities,” wrote Brian Giddings, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “Montana’s harvest seasons are not based on reducing or controlling diseases.”

The very animals trapped are the ones that feed on the rodents that carry hanta virus and other common diseases.  Sick animals aren’t lured into traps; healthy ones are. 

Pets are in far more danger from traps than they are from disease already covered by routine vaccination. If a rabid animal is in the neighborhood, I-160 promotes trapping for health and safety.

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