For me trapping is a nightmare. That is why I volunteer to collect signatures to get Initiative 177 on the ballot for Montanans to decide if trapping should continue on public lands. Trapping was once a means of livelihood. Today there are so many more lucrative job opportunities. It’s no longer necessary to make a living from clubbing an animal to death after is has suffered in great pain and tremendous fear from being held in a trap. I just can’t justify torture as a form of recreation either. Killing should be swift and with respect.
At the heart of Trap-Free Public Lands Act (MTFPL) is the prohibiting the use of traps and snares for animals on any public lands within Montana and establishes misdemeanor criminal penalties for violations of the trapping prohibitions. I-177 allows the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks to use certain traps on public land when necessary if nonlethal methods have been tried and found ineffective. I-177 allows trapping by public employees and their agents to protect public health and safety, protect livestock and property, or conduct specified scientific and wildlife management activities.
Under the initiative, trapping on private lands, which comprise 65 percent of the state, will not be affected. Nor is MTFPL the vanguard of a slippery slope- it does not affect Montanan’s constitutionally protected right to harvest wild game and fish.
It will provide safe access for citizens and pets to public lands and waterways.
To read the initiative in its entirety go to http://montanatrapfree.org.
Please take time now to consider if trapping for “recreation,” profit or tradition is ethical and humane. Eight other states and The National Humane Society have decided it is not.
Marrea Matthews
Hamilton