Summary: Trappers and landowners support the ruling, but animal advocates say they might take the issue to the voters

Oregon trappers working to clear areas of animals that kill livestock or damage crops will have to inspect their traps every 76 hours under new regulations adopted Friday by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission.

The commission's 4-2 vote provides specific guidance on the 2001 Legislature's vague and open-ended requirement that so-called restraining traps for "nuisance animals" such as coyotes, rabbits and rodents be checked "on a regular basis." Killing traps already had to be checked monthly under state rules.

State law already requires traps to be checked every 48 hours when the quarry is "fur animals," such as mink. Animal-rights activists lobbied the commission to apply the same requirement to all traps.

"The message that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sends is that convenience for the trapper outweighs being humane," Connie Durkee, a member of In Defense of Animals, said following the Friday vote. "No wild animal should have to suffer needlessly."

Trappers, landowners and their related lobbying groups showed up Friday to urge the commission to vote for the flexible 76-hour limit.

"I believe it keeps trapping viable, humane and reasonable," said Duane Zentner of Roseburg Forest Products.

There are 891 trappers registered with the state as of last count. Many work for farmers, landowners and timber companies looking to clear rodents and other animals from their property.

Some trappers had predicted financial catastrophe for their businesses if the 48-hour rule had passed. Instead, the Friday vote gives trappers more leeway than even the three-day rule suggests: They're allowed to leave snare traps alone for as long as a week if they can prove predators were damaging crops or livestock.

That loophole was favored by farmers and trappers who complained that more stringent restrictions could force some farmers, ranchers and the trappers they hire to ignore the rules and become lawbreakers.

The vote came Friday at a the commission's regularly scheduled meeting at the Portland Expo Center. Dozens of people spoke on the issue, either supporting the trappers or calling for more humane regulation of the business in Oregon.

Animal welfare advocates said snare traps, which are designed to pinch and hold the leg of a coyote or other animals, are inhumane. And they said Oregon's newly adopted rules regarding their use are weak. Thirty other states require that traps be checked every 24 hours, they said.

Some said that the commission's decision sets up the possibility that Oregon voters could be asked to weigh in on the issue.

"The commission has all but incited humane and wildlife protection organizations to renew their effort to pass a comprehensive ballot initiative to halt the use of inhumane traps in Oregon," said Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the United States.

Most opponents of the 76-hour limit said they favored the 24-hour limit to bring Oregon in line with most other states. Still, they urged adoption of at least a 48-hour limit -- which they called the most humane of four options being considered.

Trappers and landowners disagreed.

Trapper John McGuire demonstrated a coil trap, which was connected by a chain with three swivels to a grappling hook that keeps the trap secured. McGuire said he does everything he can to keep trapping humane.

"They don't hurt," he said, pinching his hand between two spring-loaded metal bars. "I could sit here for the rest of the meeting, and my fingers won't turn blue."

Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Marla Rae, who urged adoption of the 76-hour limit, said the six members were bound to weigh many factors -- from economics to the humane treatment of animals -- while bringing the new requirements into line with other state laws that deal with wildlife protection, damage control and the taking of predatory animals.

"If (humanity) were our only concern, this might be a little bit easier than it is," she said.