Dear Editor,
A new peer reviewed paper, “Best Management Practices for Furbearer Trapping Derived from Poor and Misleading Science,” was recently published and debunks Vermont Fish & Wildlife’s attempt to convince the public that “Best Management Practices” for trapping result in more humane trapping practices. They don’t.
In 2022 there was a bill to ban leghold traps—a straight-forward bill that would’ve saved thousands of animals each year from broken limbs and teeth and other painful injuries. Vermont Fish & Wildlife opposed the bill because, as most state agencies, they are politically beholden to trappers. The Commissioner and his senior team implored the legislature to not ban leghold traps—instead, he urged the legislature to require regulations be promulgated to require that trappers adhere to so-called “best management practices” (BMPs) for trapping. Fish & Wildlife spoke of an extensive study that resulted in criteria for more “humane” traps, all in an effort to assuage the public’s fevered opposition to leghold traps and to market a solution. But it was no solution, it was a ruse.
Upon first learning of the proposed BMPs, Protect Our Wildlife raised concerns, including the fact that trappers and their spouses, friends, and other interested parties labeled as “technicians” in the study were often the only ones in the field recording BMP data. POW released this white paper in 2022 challenging BMPs that were conceived, studied, and evaluated by the very people that they aim to regulate: trappers. And the conflict of interest doesn’t end there. The study was spearheaded by a private organization, the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), a public relations advisor to state fish & wildlife departments, including the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, a dues paying member. To say that they had a vested interest in the outcome of this “study” would be an understatement. A fact that was never raised by Fish and Wildlife during their promotion of BMPs is that they are inhumane by their own standards: 30% of animals are allowed severe injuries, including amputation, compound fractures, even death and still pass the BMP test!
The topic of trapping has not quieted despite Fish & Wildlife’s attempts to greenwash it, including starring in a promotional trapping video for the Vermont trappers on the taxpayers’ dime. All one has to do is see an animal languishing in pain in a so-called BMP approved trap to know the truth.
To those legislators that are using the recent BMP regulations to not take legislative action to restrict trapping, we encourage you to dig a bit deeper into the new peer reviewed research paper.
The study reveals, “The fish and wildlife agencies represented by AFWA have specific goals of promoting trapping and its supposed benefits, yet we expect their research on the impacts of trapping on wildlife to be transparent, reproducible and unbiased. The close association of promotional aspects of trapping with wildlife professionals and the evolution of BMPs, should raise concern about the objectivity among those engaged in the BMP process.” The study also states, “The analysis methods used by [AFWA] White et al. (2021) are flawed, not transparent, and irreproducible. Therefore, we question the outcomes of the study as representing best management practices for capturing furbearing animals in restraining traps.”
As for the new BMPs, Vermonters are still left with baited landmines on our shared public lands. Steel-jawed leghold and kill traps are set with no required signage, even on our National Wildlife Refuges. There are no required setbacks from public areas for large, powerful body crushing kill traps that are placed in the water, including shallow streams where dogs often like to lap from. If you cannot imagine your dog or cat painfully restrained in a trap, I ask: what is the difference between your domestic tabby cat and a majestic bobcat who is trapped during the recreational trapping season? No animal deserves this, all in the name of recreation and tradition.
Brenna Galdenzi, Stowe, president of Protect Our Wildlife POW
