How the United States was Able to Dodge International Reforms Designed to Make Wildlife Trapping Less Cruel

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Acknowledgements

The authorwould like to thank Cathy Liss, DJ Schubert, Dave Tilford, Camilla Fox, and Professor Jeffrey B. Hyman for their assistance.

Notes

1 Caught by Mistake: Pets Suffer Serious Steel-Jaw Leghold Trap Injuries, Animal Welfare Institute (2016), https://awionline.org/awi-quarterly/2016-spring/caught-mistake-pets-suffer-serious-steel-jaw-leghold-trap-injuries.

2 Ass'n of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Trap Use Report (2015), available at http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/AFWA_Trap_Use_Report_2015_ed_2016_02_29.pdf.

3 See, e.g., Christina M. Russo, “Antiquated” Trapping Laws Can Inflict Torture on Wildlife…and Family Pets, The Dodo (March 25, 2015), https://www.thedodo.com/wyoming-trapping-laws-1058977987.html.

4 Nocturnal Wildlife Research Pty., Welfare Outcomes of Leg-Hold Trap Use in Victoria (2008), http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/261712/REVIEW-WELFARE-OUTCOMES-OF-LEG-HOLD-TRAP-USE-IN-VICTORIA.pdf; G. Iossa et al., Mammal Trapping: A Review of Animal Welfare Standards of Killing and Restraining Traps, 16 Animal Welfare 335 (2007); Brian J. Frawley et al., Mich. Dep't. of Nat. Resources, Fox and Coyote Trapping Survey, Wildlife Report Division, no. 3430 (February 2005); Roger Powell & Gilbert Proulx, Trapping and Marking Terrestrial Mammals for Research: Integrating Ethics, Performance Criteria, Techniques, and Common Sense, 44 ILAR J. no. 4, 259 (2003); Thomas N. Tomsa & James E. Forbes, Fourth Eastern Wildlife Damage Control Conference, Coyote Depredation Control in New York: An Integrated Approach (September 25, 1989), http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=ewdcc4; Gary R. Bortolotti, Trap and Poison Mortality of Golden and Bald Eagles, 48 J. Wildlife Mgmt. no. 4, 1173 (1984).

5 See, e.g., United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Resolving Wildlife Damage to Protect People, Agriculture and Wildlife (2012) (referring to actions targeting “nuisance” animals), https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/informational_notebooks/2012/Section_1_combined.pdf; Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Nuisance Wildlife, http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/2351.htm (last visited March 31, 2017).

6 Camilla H. Fox, Wildlife Control: Out of Control, 35 Animal Issues no. 2, 15 (2004); Camilla H. Fox, Analysis of the Marin County Strategic Plan for Protection of Livestock & Wildlife: An Alternative to Traditional Predator Control (2008) (unpublished thesis, Prescott College); Michael Robinson, Predatory Bureaucracy: The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West (2005) (on file with the University Press of Colorado).

7 Minutes of the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards Joint Management Committee Meeting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 4–5 October 2011, p. 14: http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/2011JMCReport.pdf.

8 Animal Protection Inst., Cull of the Wild: A Contemporary Analysis of Wildlife Trapping in the United States (Camilla H. Fox & Christopher M. Papouchis eds. 2004).

9 Id. at 71.

10 Id.

11 Id.

12 Richard Gerstell, The Steel Trap in North America (1985) (Stackpole Books).

13 George F. Hubert, Jr. et al., Evaluation of Two Restraining Traps to Capture Raccoons, 24 Wildlife Soc'y Bull., no. 4, 1996, 699–708.

14 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8.

15 See Ballotopedia for a list of state initiatives: https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Public_Land_Trapping_Statute,_Proposition_201_(1994); https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_Prohibited_Methods_of_Taking_Wildlife,_Initiative_14_(1996); https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Ban_on_Leghold_Traps_Initiative,_Question_1_(1996); https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_4,_Prohibition_on_Trapping_Fur-Bearing_Mammals_(1998); https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Animal_Trapping_Act,_Initiative_713_(2000).

16 See New Jersey Dep't of Envtl. Prot., Trapping Regulations (2016), available at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2016/trapping_summary16-17.pdf. New Jersey now allows for the use of “enclosed” or “foot encapsulating” traps; live-restraint traps which operate as steel-jaw traps enclosed by a housing; see also Dena Jones & Sheila Rodriguez, Restricting the Use of Animal Traps in the United States: An Overview of Laws and Strategy, 9 Animal L. 135 (2003), available at https://www.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/lralvol9_p136.pdf.

17 Hawai'i Fishing Regulations, Board of Land and Natural Resources (August 2015), available at http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/files/2015/08/fishing_regs_Aug_2015.pdf.

18 States that have restricted the size of steel-jaw traps used in land sets include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. States that have restricted the size of steel-jaw traps used in water sets include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Information about the details of these state laws, and other state laws mentioned in these notes, is on file with the authors.

19 Nineteen states allow the use of teeth or serrations in land sets of steel-jaw traps. Twenty-six states allow the use of such traps for water sets. States that have not banned the use of teeth or serrations on steel-jaw traps used in land sets include Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. States that have not banned the use of teeth or serrations on steel-jaw traps used in water sets include these same states plus Alabama, Iowa, Maine, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

20 States prohibiting or restricting steel-jaw traps used in land sets except for use of padded steel-jaw traps under certain circumstances are California (padded steel-jaw traps used by “federal, state, county, or municipal government employees or their duly authorized agents in the extraordinary case where the otherwise prohibited padded-jaw steel-jaw trap is the only method available to protect human health or safety”), Colorado (padded steel-jaw traps may be used after obtaining a permit for “animal damage control purposes,” by the state Department of Health, or under other regulatory exemptions), Connecticut (“on land, trappers must use padded-jawed traps, and set the traps in the animal's burrow; steel-jawed leghold traps may be set only in water bodies”), Florida (“permits for padded steel-jaw traps may be issued to trap nuisance animals”), and Washington (“padded steel-jaw traps used by permit for human health/safety, endangered species protection, wildlife research, and animal damage control”).

21 WildEarth Guardians, FAQ on Trapping, http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/FAQ-ON-TRAPPING.pdf?docID=4562; see also Ass'n of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, supra note 3.

22 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8, at 80.

23 States that mandate the use of offset jaws under some circumstances include Arizona (“footholds” must be “padded or rubber-jawed or unpadded with jaws permanently offset to a minimum of 3/16 inch and a device that allows for pan tension adjustment”), Arkansas (“all steel-jaw traps with a jaw spread greater than 5 inches must have offset jaws”), Delaware (“any footholds above waterline must be offset, laminated, or padded”), Indiana (illegal to use a “foothold trap with saw-toothed or spiked jaws and illegal to take a wild animal with a foothold trap if the widest inside jaw-spread measured perpendicular to the trap's base plate and the inside width between the trap's hinge posts (both measurements) is greater than 5¾ inches and less than or equal to 6½ inches, unless the jaws of the trap have at least a 1/8-inch offset, the gap of the offset is filled with securely attached rubber pads, or the trap is completely covered by water”), Nevada (“all steel leg hold traps size No. 2 or larger or with an outside jaw spread of 5.5 inches or larger must maintain a minimum trap opening of three-sixteenths of one inch”), New Mexico (“any foot-hold trap with an inside jaw spread 5½ inches or larger shall be offset, unless it has padded jaws”), North Carolina (“if the jaw spread is between 5½ and 7½ inches, the jaws must be offset by 3/16th of an inch”), Oregon (illegal to use a “No. 3 or larger steel-jaw trap not having a jaw spacing of at least 3/16 of one inch when the trap is sprung”), and Utah (traps “must leave an opening of at least 3/16 of an inch when the jaw is closed”).

24 See New Jersey Dep't of Envtl. Prot., Comment Letter on Proposed Rule to Amend N.J.A.C. 7:25–5.12(g) to Allow for the Use of Enclosed Leghold Traps (May 15, 2015), available at https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/AWI-WL-NJTrapping-DEP-DktNo011502-2015.pdf.

25 See id.

26 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8, at 81.

27 Id. States that prohibit the use of snares for commercial trapping and recreational trapping: Arizona (complete ban), California, Colorado, Connecticut (complete ban), Hawaii, New York (complete ban), Rhode Island (complete ban), Vermont (complete ban), and Washington (although note that snares are permissible to use under some circumstances in Washington).

28 Tom Garrett, Alternative Traps: The Role of Cage and Box Traps in Modern Trapping, the Role of Legsnares in Modern Trapping, and the Role of Spring-Powered Killing Traps in Modern Trapping (rev. ed., 1999).

29 Id.

30 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8, at 83.

31 Id.

32 Id.

33 Id.

34 Minn. Stat. § 97B.705 (2016), https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=97b.705.

35 See Trapping Regulations, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (March 27, 2017), available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/9209.html.

36 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8, at 83. States that have banned pole traps only if set for birds: South Dakota (if set in a manner that a raptor may be captured, injured, or killed: http://gfp.sd.gov/hunting/trapping/regulations.aspx) and Wisconsin (http://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/wm/wm0002.pdf). States that explicitly prohibit pole traps are New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia. Others may indirectly prohibit by excluding from list of acceptable traps for use.

37 Id.

38 Id. States that have explicitly banned the use of colony traps include Illinois (http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=052000050K2.33a) and Wisconsin (http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/Summary-Trapping-Regulations-Fur-Harvesting.pdf). States that explicitly allow the use of colony traps are Colorado (https://www.sos.state.co.us/CCR/GenerateRulePdf.do?ruleVersionId=854), Iowa (muskrats only: https://coolice.legis.iowa.gov/Cool-ICE/default.asp?category=billinfo&service=IowaCode&ga=83&input=481A.92), and Michigan (muskrats only: http://www.mtpca.com/regulations.html).

39 Council Regulation 3254/91 of 4 November 1991, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31991R3254 (EEC).

40 Id.

41 Id.

42 Id.

43 Note for the File prepared by Willem Wijnstekers, 24 November 1993 (an adapted version of a note of 8 October 1993 on this subject). Note that the document takes account of the comments and views of the legal division of DG XI and the Commission Legal Service.

44 Id.

45 Office of the United States Trade Rep., European Union Humane Trapping Standards Agreement (December 23, 1997) available at http://tcc.export.gov/Trade_Agreements/All_Trade_Agreements/exp_002820.asp.

46 European Commission, Implementation of Humane Trapping Standard in the EU, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/biodiversity/animal_welfare/hts/index_en.htm (last visited March 31, 2017).

47 Response from Department of External Affairs, Canada to Access to Information Request No. A-176 for a “discussion paper dated May 1985 prepared by Gray and Company… as well as copies of the minutes of meetings held where this report was tabled and discussed by government representatives,” dated 12 September 1985.

48 Id.

49 American National Standards Institute, International Organization for Standardization Overview, available at https://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/iso_programs/overview.

50 See Pro-Steel Jaw Leghold Trap “Experts” Meet Behind Closed Doors to Produce a Final Draft of “Humane” Trap Standards, 42 Animal Welfare Inst. Q. 12–13 (Spring 1993).

51 See Friends of Furbearers: Delegations That Voted for Removal of the Word “Humane” from the Title of the Trap Standards, 43 Animal Welfare Inst. Q. 1, 11 (Winter 1994).

52 See International Organization for Standardization, Animal (Mammal) Traps, ISO 10990-4:1999 & ISO 10990-5:1999, https://www.iso.org/committee/54422/x/catalogue.

53 New York Dep't of Envtl. Conservation, Best Management Practices for Trapping in the United States (2006), available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/trapbmpsintro.pdf.

54 Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Best Trapping Practices for Trapping in the United States, Introduction, at 3 (2006), available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/trapbmpsintro.pdf.

55 Responsive Mgmt., supra note 2.

56 See Minutes of the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards Joint Management Committee Meeting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 15 (October 4–5, 2011), http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/2011JMCReport.pdf.

57 Id.

58 Fox, supra note 6.

59 Id.

60 According to the minutes of the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards Joint Management Committee Meeting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 4–5 October 2011, p. 15, about $9 million has been spent “including federal funds and state contributions, direct and in-kind.” http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/2011JMCReport.pdf.

61 Id.

62 Personal communication from Cathy Liss to Mr. MacLauchlan, 5 February 1998.

63 Camilla Fox, Trapping, Behavior, and Welfare, in Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Welfare 559 (Marc Bekoff ed., 2d ed. 2010); Animal Protection Inst., supra note 10; Jones & Rodriguez, supra note 17.

64 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8.

65 R. Bruce Gill, The Wildlife Professional Subculture: The Case of the Crazy Aunt, 1 Human Dimensions of Wildlife 60 (1996); Martin Nie, State Wildlife Policy and Management: The Scope and Bias of Political Conflict, 64 Pub. Admin. Rev. 221 (2004); Coexisting with Large Carnivores: Lessons from Greater Yellowstone (Tim Clark et al. eds., Island Press 2005).

66 Laws on Leg-Hold Animal Traps Around the World, The Law Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/law/help/leg-hold-traps/index.php (last updated December 12, 2016).

67 Fox, supra note 63; Iossa et al., supra note 4; Caught by Mistake: Pets Suffer Serious Steel-Jaw Leghold Trap Injuries, Animal Welfare Institute (2016), https://awionline.org/awi-quarterly/2016-spring/caught-mistake-pets-suffer-serious-steel-jaw-leghold-trap-injuries.

G. Iossa, C. D. Soulsbury, & S. Harris. Mammal Trapping: A Review of Animal Welfare Standards of Killing; G. Iossa et al., Mammal Trapping: A Review of Animal Welfare Standards of Killing and Restraining Traps, 16 Animal Welfare 335 (2007).

68 Robert Muth et al., Unnecessary Source of Pain and Suffering or Necessary Management Tool: Examining the Attitudes of Conservation Professionals toward Outlawing the Use of the Steel-jaw Trap, 34 Wildlife Soc'y Bull. 706 (2010); Animal Protection Inst., supra note 9; Dena Jones & Sheila Rodriguez, Restricting the Use of Animal Traps in the United States: An Overview of Laws and Strategy, 9 Animal L. 135 (2003); Stuart Harrop, The Trapping of Wild Mammals and Attempts to Legislate for Animal Suffering in International Standards, 12 J. Envtl. L. 333 (2000); John Gentile, The Evolution of Anti-Trapping Sentiment in the United States: A Review and Commentary, 15 Wildlife Soc'y Bull. 490 (1987).

69 See Garrett, supra note 28.

70 Fox, supra note 63; Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8; Jones & Rodriguez, supra note 16.

71 Jones & Rodriguez, supra note 16; see also states with initiative or referendum, Ballotpedia.org, https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_initiative_or_referendum.

72 Kenneth Jost, Initiatives: True Democracy or Bad Lawmaking?, in Editorial Research Reports 1990, at 461 (1990).

73 Id. at 463.

74 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8; Jones & Rodriguez, supra note 16; Susan Cockrell, Crusader Activists and the 1996 Colorado Anti-Trapping Campaign, 27 Wildlife Soc'y Bull. 65 (1999).

75 Jones & Rodriguez, supra note 16.

76 Animal Welfare Inst. v. Martin, 588 F. Supp. 2d 70 (D. Me. 2008); Keith Rizzardi, Animal Welfare Institute v. Martin: Dispute over Canada Lynx Trapping Creates Factual Twists and Procedural Controversies, ESA Blawg (December 24, 2008), http://www.esablawg.com/esalaw/ESBlawg.nsf/d6plinks/KRII-7MN4KB.

77 16 U.S.C. § 1532 (2017) (defining the term “take” as “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct”).

78 Friends of Animals v. Phifer, 1:15-CV-00157-JDL, 2017 WL 617910 (D. Me. 2017).

79 Ctr. For Biological Diversity v. Holsten, 541 F. Supp. 2d 1073, 1078 (D. Minn. 2008).

80 Id. at 1079.

81 Nocturnal Wildlife Research Pty., supra note 4; Powell & Proulx, supra note 4.

82 While the World Moves On, US Still Caught in Its Traps, Animal Welfare Institute (2013), https://awionline.org/awi-quarterly/2013-fall/while-world-moves-us-still-caught-its-traps.

83 Id.

84 Nat'l Wildlife Research Ctr., Evaluation of Remote Trap Monitors (2008), available at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/research/predator_management/content/USDA%20Tech%20Note%20Remote%20Trap%20Monitors.pdf.

85 Donald Balser, Tranquilizer Tabs for Capturing Wild Carnivores, 29 J. Wildlife Mgmt. 438 (1965); Duane Sahr & Frederick Knowlton, Evaluation of Tranquilizer Trap Devices (TTDs) for Foothold Traps Used to Capture Gray Wolves, 28 Wildlife Soc'y Bull. 597 (2000).

86 See Oregon Big Game Hunting Regulations, eRegulations, http://www.eregulations.com/oregon/big-game-hunting/general-hunting-regulations/ (last visited March 11, 2017).

87 Camilla Fox, Wildlife Control: Out of Control, 35 Animal Issues 15 (2004); John Hadidian et al., Nuisance Control Practices, Policies, and Procedures in the United States, in Wildlife, Land, and People: Priorities for the 21st Century 165 (Rebecca Field et al. eds., 2001).

88 Thomas Barnes, State Agency Oversight of the Nuisance Wildlife Control Industry, 25 Wildlife Soc'y Bull. 185 (1997); Hadidian et al., supra note 87.

89 Barnes, supra note 89.

90 Trapping Regulations, Georgia Dep't of Natural Res., http://www.georgiawildlife.com/Trapping (last visited March 11, 2017).

91 Ala. Code § 220-2-.30(2) (2017).

92 New Jersey Dep't Envtl. Prot., Trapping Regulations (2012), available at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2012/dighnt70-73.pdf.

93 Wisconsin Dep't of Natural Res., Wisconsin Trapper Education Manual, available at http://dnr.wi.gov/education/OutdoorSkills/documents/Unit3.pdf; see also Ass'n of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Summary of Trapping Regulations for Fur Harvesting in the United States (2007), available at http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/Summary-Trapping-Regulations-Fur-Harvesting.pdf. http://www.fishwildlife.org/files/Summary-Trapping-Regulations-Fur-Harvesting.pdf.

94 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8.

95 While the World Moves On, supra note 82.

96 Lisa Kemmerer, Animals and the Environment: Advocacy, Activism, and the Quest for Common Ground 125 (2015).

97 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8.

98 New York Dep't of Envtl. Conservation, Trapping Furbearers: An Introduction to Responsible Trapping (2016), available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/trapedman.pdf.

99 Exposing the Myths: The Truth about Trapping, Born Free USA, http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?p=53&more=1 (last visited March 11, 2017).

100 Animal Protection Inst., supra note 8, at 28.

101 Id.

102 See, e.g., Maryland Dep't of Natural Res., Maryland Trapper Education Manual (2005), available at http://dnr.maryland.gov/Documents/Maryland_Trapper_Education_Student_Manual.pdf; Minnesota Dep't of Natural Res., Minnesota Trapper Education Manual (2012), available at http://www.mnforesttrappers.com/trapper_manual.pdf.

103 Nocturnal Wildlife Research Pty., supra note 4; Iossa et al., supra note 4; Brian J. Frawley et al., supra note 4; Powell & Proulx, supra note 4; Gary Bortolotti, supra note 4.

104 See, e.g., Wisconsin Dep't of Natural Res., Nuisance Wildlife Guidelines, available at http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/documents/nuswlguide.pdf; Dealing with Nuisance Coyotes, Indiana Dep't of Natural Res., http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/5688.htm (last visited March 11, 2017).

105 Id.

106 Id.

107 See, e.g., Landowner Permission Requirements and Trapping on Private Property, Maine Dep't of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, http://www.state.me.us/ifw/hunting_trapping/trapping/laws/landowner_privateproperty.htm (last visited March 11, 2017).

108 Ass'n of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, supra note 93.

109 Id.