All paws on deck: The movement to end trapping is far from over

All paws on deck: The movement to end trapping is far from over

By Logan Christian and Josh Rosenau

Early this year, New Mexico enacted Roxy’s Law, a policy that restricts almost all forms of wildlife trapping on the state’s public land. This law will help end considerable animal suffering in the state, not only for “furbearing” species but also for unintentionally captured endangered species and pets.

Roxy

Roxy’s Law is named for a dog whose death galvanized the movement against trapping in New Mexico. Recently, a New Mexico court dismissed a range of wildlife crimes facing Marty Cordova, whose illegally placed traps killed Roxy. Officials from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the Bureau of Land Management mishandled evidence by deleting numerous photos and not collecting the implicated traps.

Only if law enforcement gives it teeth can Roxy’s Law take a bite out of illegal trapping. In addition to clearer enforcement guidelines, the new law needs a longer reach to stamp out this cruelty and protect our pets and wildlife. Trapping remains legal on all of New Mexico’s private lands, and throughout most private and public lands in the vast majority of states.

For decades, wildlife agencies have viewed trapping as a way to protect desirable game populations. Eleven states allow the trapping of mountain lions, whether by wildlife agency officials, federal Wildlife Services, or private contractors. Nationally, thousands of coyotes and other carnivores are trapped every year, with no evidence of any benefit for game species, and regardless of the social and ecological benefits carnivores provide.

Fortunately, change is coming, even within the livestock industry, once a major advocate for trapping. Many livestock producers do not see trapping as the only way to meet their objectives. From 2000 to 2015, the percentage of producers who use non-lethal predator deterrence methods grew six-fold from 3% to 19%. Non-lethal deterrence often proves more effective and cheaper in the long run compared to trapping.

Professional trappers are changing their views, too. Carter Niemeyer grew up trapping for federal agencies, “a hired gun for the livestock industry,” as he puts it. But after 26 years of that work, he went from hunting wolves, cougars, and other carnivores, to helping return wolves to the West. As he came to see that killing those animals didn’t cure anything, Niemeyer rethought the value of trapping. “I know now,” he writes, “that most of the predator killing I did was unjustified.” He follows a new path now, as have many other trappers. He doesn’t reject what trapping was, just doesn’t see it as the future for himself or wildlife. “Trapping was everything to me. I wouldn’t take back most of what I did. After all, it taught me almost everything I know about wildlife. But that doesn’t mean I’m the same now.”

Neither are New Mexicans. Trapping may be an important to some, but the majority of New Mexicans supported a trapping ban for decades before Roxy’s Law passed. New Mexico shows what the movement to end trapping can accomplish, but also highlights how far we have to go. To win this battle, wildlife advocates need to keep working with agriculture producers, sportsmen, and agency officials who see that trapping isn’t a solution, but a problem. If the movement can do that, it might just prevail.

Logan Christian and Josh Rosenau are Conservation Advocates with the Mountain Lion Foundation, a National non-profit organization.

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish votes to amend the Furbearer rule to align with a new law that bans trapping on New Mexico’s public lands

For immediate release

Date: October 26, 2021

Contact:
Logan Christian, Conservation Advocate, Mountain Lion Foundation
Lchristian@mountainlion.org
916-442-2666 ext. 108

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish votes to amend the Furbearer rule prohibiting all “sports harvest” trapping on New Mexico public land.

Las Cruces, NM – On Friday, October 22, 2021, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) Commission approved changes to the Furbearer rule (19.32.2 NMAC) with a 5-0 vote. These changes conform to statutory requirements set forth in New Mexico Senate Bill 32, the Wildlife Conservation and Public Safety Act. The Act, better known as Roxy’s Law, was passed in March 2021 and prohibits all trapping on New Mexico’s public lands.

Overall, the rule change conformed to the Act’s statutory requirements. However, the Mountain Lion Foundation (MLF) and other members of the coalition Trap Free New Mexico signed and delivered a comment letter authored by Chris Smith of WildEarth Guradians outlining certain concerns coalition members have related to future enforcement of the rule. The letter clarified that existing closures will not be opened to any sport harvest trapping and that depredation trapping shall only be carried out as specified under exemptions in the Act. The letter also acknowledged that NMDGF will work with New Mexico Indian Affairs Department to ensure that exemptions for religious or ceremonial trapping will be carried out in a lawful and respectful way consistent with federal procedures for recognizing tribes, nations, and pueblos.

Logan Christian, Conservation Advocate for Mountain Lion Foundation in New Mexico, delivered a verbal comment at Friday’s Commission meeting affirming MLF’s support for the proposed changes. In line with the comment letter, MLF also urged the NMDGF to ensure that any future publications or communications make clear that the exemptions in the Act do not open any public land to “sport harvest” trapping.

MLF will closely monitor the new Furbearer rule as implementation and enforcement begins. New Mexico is setting an example for other states, and MLF and other Trap Free New Mexico coalition members hope that this is the first of many states to ban trapping on public land for the benefit of both public safety and wildlife.

Wildlife on public lands in New Mexico are now safe from trappers!

Wildlife on public lands in New Mexico are now safe from trappers! New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law Senate Bill 32!! This bill bans traps, snares, and poisons on public lands across New Mexico.

For over a decade there has been a battle to get trapping devices off of public lands in New Mexico. We are thrilled to see this tireless work finally pay off. Now our public lands in New Mexico are safer for wildlife, people and pets. It couldn’t have been done without you!

Thank you all for the support!

Our thanks also go out the many organizations in the Trap Free New Mexico coalition:  Wild Earth Guardians, Rio Grande Chapter of Sierra Club, Animal Protection Voters, Southwest Environmental Center, New Mexico Wild, Project Coyote, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Voters of New Mexico, Endangered Species Coalition, Amigos Bravos, Defenders of Wildlife, and Sandia Mountain Bearwatch.

We are so grateful for everyone’s hard work.