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End Cruel Trapping on National Wildlife Refuges

End Cruel Trapping on National Wildlife Refuges

 

Trapping is allowed on more than half of our nation’s 563 wildlife refuges comprising about 150 million acres. Every year, more refuges are opened up to the archaic practice of trapping and killing wild animals for recreation and profit (fur), although polls have shown that 79% of Americans believe trapping on National Wildlife Refuges should be prohibited, while 88% believe wildlife and habitat preservation should be the highest priority of the refuge system.

A bill to prohibit the use of body-gripping traps, the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act (H.R. 2016/S. 1081) has been introduced in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Body-gripping traps—steel-jaw foothold traps, cable snares and Conibear traps—are archaic devices that can cause painful injuries, such as fractures, dislocation, laceration, hemorrhage, and even forced amputations when the trapped animal chews off his or her own limb to escape the trap. Animals often linger in traps and snares for several days while struggling with horrific pain, trauma and a prolonged and painful death. Trapped animals still alive by the time the trapper returns, will be clubbed, strangled, shot or stomped to death, or drowned.

Wildlife refuges should be just that – safe havens for all wild animals. Also, visitors should not have to worry about their own safety or that of their family members, including children and animal companions nor should they have to worry about coming across an injured or dead animal in a trap.

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