IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED
Stop Senseless Trapping of our Wolves and other Wildlife in Montana!
Public Comments needed to FWP, best by May 10 (comment period ends at 5 p.m. on June 18)
Dear Friend,
Your comment is needed against statewide wolf trapping on public lands. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) will present the proposal to allow a wolf trapping season on our public lands on May 10 in Helena! Update: The proposed statewide Trapping Season for wolves would be December 15 through Feb. 28; Snaring is out for now, statewide trapping using leghold traps is in… Click here for info about the proposal. Traps used for wolves have a 9 inch jaw spread! See background information for more details.
Allowing trapping of wolves could potentially put an end to our efforts to eliminate trapping in general on Montana’s public lands!
Trapping of wolves brings a whole new arsenal of weaponry to trapping on public lands! Powerful traps will further compromise the public’s safety, and increase the risk for our companion dogs.
A wolf trapping policy could be used as a “Trojan Horse” to actually loosen current trapping regulations (e.g., seasonal restrictions, setbacks, etc.)
Click here for background info. We need your help to protest trapping of wolves on public lands. Please write, call and attend this crucial meeting! The final agenda is set, with trapping disguised under ‘Wolf Hunting.’ Please spread the word to all your friends and family. We’re providing talking points at the end of this alert.
MAY 10, 2012 FISH, WILDLIFE AND PARK
meeting in Helena to discuss trapping of wolves on public lands!
Send your message today to FWP and request NO additional trapping of wolves and NO TRAPPING OF ANY WILDLIFE ON OUR PUBLIC LANDS. For background info on how a trapping season for wolves further threatens YOUR and your companion animals’ safety while out on public lands, click here.
TO SUBMIT COMMENTS (Note: Comments must be received by 5 p.m. on June 18, better before May 10. The commissioners’ names are: Ron Moody, Bob Ream, Dan Vermillion, A.T. Stafne and Shane Colton.
E-mail: fwpcomm@mt.gov
Mail: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, 1420 East Sixth Avenue, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701
Phone: (406) 444-2535
Talking Points:
Public Policy:
· Trappers already set tens of thousands of baited traps and snares across our public 
lands, which lure in any animal unfortunate enough to step into these hidden devices. The hidden nature of trapping and the sheer number of traps means no monitoring or enforcement of trapping regulations is possible. Allowing yet another layer of larger lethal traps across the public landscape for wolves will cause the by-catch of non-target animals to increase exponentially. Already, 50,000 animals are reported killed in traps or snares annually, and the real number is likely three times that.
The Idaho U.S. Forest Service employee Josh Bransford who posed for his photo in front of a trapped wolf cringing in terror and pain, claimed he set more than 75 traps and snares close together in one area to catch a wolf. Wolf trapping in Montana will effectively close public lands to everyone but trappers.
· Currently, publicly-owned ‘furbearing’ wildlife is being managed as a ‘natural renewable resource’ for trappers’ recreation and profit. However, wildlife and public lands are owned by the public, and as a taxpayer, I want to have my voice considered. The public wants less trapping and not more. If FWP needs to manage wolf populations, they need to find more ethically responsible methods of doing so.
· Trapping kills public wildlife for fur and not for meat. Hunters and anglers are not allowed to sell the meat of wildlife and fish. Profit-driven trapping for exotic fashion markets is in conflict with conservation and managing wildlife as a public trust.
Cruelty:
· I strongly oppose the trapping and snaring of wolves and of other wildlife, as it is cruel, indiscriminate, dangerous to people and pets, and causes wanton waste.
· Trapping and snaring are extremely inhumane. Death by trapping or snaring means an agonizing and slow death for our wildlife, including wolves. Scientific studies show trapped animals suffer from fear, anxiety and physical pain. They suffer dehydration, starvation, predation, severe swelling, lacerations, dislocations, broken teeth and bones. Some freeze to death while exposed to the elements. Some chew or twist off their paws in an attempt to escape.
· Trapping directly violates the hunters’ code of ethics. It is neither Fair chase nor can trappers claim that they are sure of their target—trappers set 100-200-mile long traplines and then go home only to return when it’s convenient as there is no required trap check in Montana. Meanwhile animals, including endangered, threatened species and companion animals are lingering in baited traps and snares.
· Trapping creates wanton waste. For every wild furbearer killed, many more non-targeted wild and domestic animals are killed and discarded, in violation of hunting and outdoors ethics. Offspring die of starvation or dehydration when their nursing mothers are trapped, further increasing the number of discarded animals, and endangering the survival of rare species such as lynx, wolverine and fisher.
· Trapping commercializes wildlife. Contrary to the noncommercial legacy of hunters, trapping promotes the private commercialization of publicly owned wildlife. In Montana, fish and wildlife belong to all citizens, and need to be managed in noncommercial ways that ensure healthy species populations will be sustained forever.
Public Safety Risk:
· Traps and snares in Montana can be set 50 feet from designated public trails and roads, 30 feet from the centerline of a road; non-lethal traps and snares can be set 300 feet from trailheads and lethal devices are allowed 1000 feet from trailheads. A closed gate on a road or trail indicates that no trapping regulations apply at all as is the case with predator and non-game trapping! Many, from horrific personal experiences, know some trappers don’t follow or even know these setbacks resulting in people and pets encountering illegally set traps and snares.
· Traps and snares put the public at risk: We already have to deal with traps-infested drainages. Many people are not using public lands anymore especially during the winter out of fear for the safety of their children and pets. It is unacceptable that trappers, the minority, comprising less than half of one percent of the Montana population, hold public lands hostage for the majority of the public! It is intolerable for the public to now have to deal with even more traps and snares of a much more powerful and deadly magnitude that already endanger us, our children and pets. Every trapping season, over reported 25 incidents occur where companion animals are being trapped, i.e., during the last season (2011-12), 23 dogs were injured and 2 dogs killed in traps; two cats each lost their leg as a result from being trapped. It is unacceptable that the public now has to deal with even more traps!
Threat to Wildlife Conservation:
· Trapping indiscriminately kills many species, including threatened Canada lynx and endangered American bald eagle. There is no penalty, nor fine for trapping endangered species, raptors or migratory birds. Species targeted by trapping, such as marten and otter, are severely depleted; swift foxes are currently being reintroduced as trapping continues, while wolverine and fisher are at risk of extinction in Montana due to trapping. How many species will go extinct due to wolf traps? What an absurd and callous disregard for life and nature it would take to allow wolf trapping in Montana.
· Trappers set baited traps and snares across our public lands, which lure in any animal unfortunate enough to step into these hidden traps and snares. With tens of thousands of traps and snares scattered across Montana’s public lands, no monitoring or enforcement of trapping regulations is possible. We have no required trap check in Montana, resulting in the likelihood of death for non-target species being much greater and the chance of releasing a snared or trapped nontarget species unharmed is severely hindered. The use of traps and snares intended for wolves, exacerbates the problem.
Background info:
Legalizing the trapping and snaring of wolves brings a whole new arsenal of weaponry to the act of trapping. As if trapping in Montana hasn’t already done enough damage by killing an estimated 50,000 reported animals each year and unknown numbers of non-target species including threatened, endangered, birds of prey, pets, and incidental catch of those considered “trash” species. Recommended traps for wolves such as the Bridger-Brawn #9 Wolf Traps have a 9 inch jaw spread. Manufacturers report they are very powerful for trapping wolves, mountain lions or larger animals. While it is illegal to trap mountain lions in Montana, what impact will these massive traps have on them and other animals that get caught? These legholds are reported capable of catching elk size animals and perhaps horses, too.
Snares are a popular tool for killing wolves. These wolf snares are made of a much heavier gauge cable. The main goal of trapping is to obtain animals when their pelts are “prime”, meaning their fur is fully mature, luxurious and of the highest value. It is not coincidental that trapping seasons with opening and closing dates coincide and support this objective. Therefore, the wolf trapping season would overlap with mountain lion season. Lion hounds will not survive these snares especially as their hunting pattern is to outdistance the hunter. Cable cutters certainly won’t cut these monsters. Bolt cutters would be needed if the animal didn’t choke to death first. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, biologists estimate that in areas with heavy trapping pressure, wolf snares catch up to 1% of the moose annually. Most moose caught in wolf snares reportedly die either at the capture site or subsequent to release.
Montana is the only state in the contiguous United States that still permits the trapping of wolverines whose numbers estimate in the 200-300 range in the entire Rocky Mountains. While they wait protection as a candidate under the Endangered Species Act, what will become of the wolverine in the face of these wolf traps and snares? Doug Chadwick, wildlife biologist and wolverine researcher, recently stated that “If traps stout enough to hold wolves are spread throughout our public lands, the bycatch of wolverines, lynx, and possibly young bears will be disastrous and seldom if ever reported.”
Trapping already occurs legally year round in Montana. How many of these death devices will remain in the woods, mountains, along rivers, waterways and near trails posing significant, but generally well hidden, risk to all? Montana does not need to add yet another species to its long and lengthy list of permissible trapping victims. A mandatory wolf trapping class is not an appeasement to the inherent cruelties and indiscriminate nature in trapping. The widely spread story of Josh Bransford and his picture with the tormented trapped wolf that he proudly posted is testimonial. This is not the image we as Montanans want. Wildlife watching brings in $376 million to this state, and reiterates wildlife is much more valuable alive in Montana then dead.
The nation and the world are watching! Don’t give Montana a Black eye by permitting the trapping and snaring of wolves!
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Have you spotted traps/snares on public lands? Do you have a story to tell? We want to hear about it! You can contact us at (406) 274 7878 or via e-mail at info@footloosemontana.org Note: Though we may present excerpts from your report, we will protect your privavcy if you choose to remain anonymous.
Please note that the purpose of disclosing trap locations on our website is to warn others, who may be about to venture in the woods with companion animals. Tampering with traps or snares, or interfering with trapping activities is against Montana’s law.
We have received the following reports for November/December 2011:
Report received: December 22
Trap location: Helena, Wolf Creek area in two locations on Lyons Creek road.
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Two reports received: December 20
Trap locations: Clinton area and Billings
Note: In each case, traps/snares were illegally set on private land, with traps not having I.D.s attached and set without the landowners’ permission. In the Billings incident, a hiker’s two dogs were simultaneoulsy caught in two snares. Due to the dog owner’s immediate action, no injuries occurred… In the Clinton incident, the trapped dog had to be taken to a local Missoula veterinarian clinic. No further details of the trap incident in the Clinton area are known at this point.
Dog owner’s report: “I was walking down a trail on a friends ranch lands and next thing I knew Toby was struggling. He is a big pointer-lab. He couldn’t say a word because his nose was held fast by a wire snare. His eyes registered sheer terror as the wire held his nose fast—[h]e could not even announce his deadly predicament. Had he not been within my sight, I never would have known what happened to him. He was a good boy while I released the snare, and because I was RIGHT there—onto the problem within a few seconds—the snare did not get too tight for me to be able to release him. I was scared for the other dogs and looked around to see Mango, my youngest dog, a little spaniel-type mix, walk right into a snare—his whole head. I was onto him in a flash and snare did not choke him. He has long hair and I would have had trouble releasing a snare around his little neck, had he taken just two more steps before I could reach him. I was terrified and quickly gathered all three dogs around me, put them on leashes, and got out of there. On the way out, I saw a skinned porcupine and other evidence of snared animals. I talked to the rancher because I remembered him saying that I should be safe on his lands, that no one had permission to set snares. But when you own that many acres, and snares are generally legal, this kinds of incident is bound to happen. The rancher mentioned that he used to allow snares, but a neighbor’s dog was caught, and that was years ago now. I was VERY lucky. We need to make snares illegal. They have a relentless death-grip. What a horrible way to die.”
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Report received: November 15
Trap location: In Helena along Trout Creek… the trapline runs from the Vigilante Campground downstream
Type of trap(s): Trapline (multiple traps and possibly all types of traps and snares)
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Report received: December 19
Trap location: Eureka, near Grave Creek
Type of trap: Foothold trap
Excerpt from dog owner’s report: “… My dog was hurt by a trap that was illegally placed 10 ft from a cross country ski trail. The trap was in plain site only a quarter mile from the trail head and… the trapper had been snowmobiling on a designated cross country area that had rocks placed so that snowmobiles could not go through which he went around.”
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Report received: December 18
Trap location: Crazy Creek, just 25 yards north of the Two Good Trail Campground, up a path, north of Sula off of Highway 93, to the east.
Type of trap: Snare and foothold trap!
Dog owners’ report: “WARNING!!! Both of our dogs got caught in traps today. My lab got caught in a foot trap (photo) and as I ran up the trail to find her (yelping with pain) my other dog at my side jerked to a stop, caught in a snare trap right on the path! One dog choking with a noose tight wire, the other yelping and pulling at the leg trap, just 10 feet apart! It was horrific! Luckily, there were 2 of us. One ran back to the car and got our wire cutters (we keep them in case a deer is caught in a fence somewhere) and we were able to cut the noose after about 10 minutes of trying. My partner was able to open the jaws of the leg trap. (Panic and adrenaline). That dog is limping, and will most likely need an x ray to determine breakage. The other dog is shook but OK. We found another trap nearby. There was NO MARKINGS or WARNINGS about the traps. The traps DO NOT have serial numbers. Tell all of your friends with dogs and children!”
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Report received: December 4
Trap location: Missoula County, Deep Creek area… “continue down the road and take a right going up river instead of going left to the gun range and go about 1/2 to
1 mile and there is a gated road to the left. We went up that road that they
are logging up right now and then kept going along the 2 track road, about a
1/4 mile up that road.”
Type of trap: Foothold trap
What happened: A female dalmatian got her foot caught in a trap while the family was out hunting for a Christmas tree.
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