Wyoming Anti-trapping Bill

[go_deep]

There is an anti-trapping group here in Wyoming that has got a bill written to be heard in committee during the next legislative session. The bill is trapping setbacks, making it illegal to place a trap near trailheads, trails, and even possibly roadways.
We need to email or call every senator to let them know that we do not want this bill to ever leave committee. Below is the email I sent, done copy and paste and resend it, it's just there for reference. Link to contact information for all legislators, https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislators/2024/H

I would like to add some facts to a proposed bill that will be coming up at the next session. Trapping setbacks, making it illegal to set traps within certain distance of trail heads, and trails.

First, its illegal to even have your dog off their lease at a trailhead, see response for the USFS to my question of if dogs need to be leashed:

4/27/2024
Hello Trevor,
I will try to paraphrase it a bit and let's see if that is helpful to you, ok? Otherwise, you can call us at 307-739-5500 and we can talk and see if that is more useful to you.

Title 36 CFR 261.16 (k) basically says in any developed recreation area of the forest (and that would be a trailhead, a parking lot, at a campground, a boat launch, next to corals installed by the FS, a swimming beach, a bathroom, etc.) must have their dog on a leash, no longer than 6-feet, or under physical control, ( not voice control). This applies to all National Forests, and all Ranger Districts. The other rule, I am aware of is that Wyoming is a fence out state, meaning if you don't want cattle or other animals (dogs) on your property (your private land abutting the FS), it is a responsibility of the private landowner to put up and maintain a fence.


Why do we need a law to make it illegal to trap somewhere to protect dogs, when it's illegal to have your dog off their leash there in the first place?


A lot of the conversations about this are in the wrong place with the topic, I should not be able to just let my dog run around out of site, or unrestrained. What if it runs around the corner and runs into another hiker who is deathly afraid of dogs, or another dog, or a wild animal? If my dog is out of sight and of my control, I do not know if my dog is killing a squirrel or a rabbit, or chasing a deer, all illegal in Wyoming. Why take away my freedom to trap somewhere, where you legally have to have your dog on a 6' or shorter leash? Nobody is putting a trap within 6' of a trailhead, because no target animal with be in a parking lot. This is purely an effort to chip away at the trapping rights of the Wyoming trapper.

If this bill was written to protect animals, the pet owner would keep their dog on a leash to ensure that their dog, along with any other wildlife from a mouse to a moose isn't harassed or even possibly killed while out on a walk, but they don't want that, they want to let their dog loose and let it run where ever it wants to go, in most cases out of site, doing whatever the dog wants to do at the expense of any wild animal or other person it comes across.

A poll was placed on a hunting forum asking people if their dog had been injured. Being hurt by other people, other dogs, wild animals, trash like old barbed wire, the least was trapping (link below). There are far greater threats and dangers in the outdoors to hurt a pet then trapping. This poll shows that every possibility for a dog to get hurt, trapping was the least dangerous way.
At this date and time response to the survey were instances where your dog was injured:
70 injuries reported by falling or running into something, fence posts and barbed wire were the 2 primary reports
39 injuries by a wild animal
29 injuries by another domestic animal
23 injuries by a motor vehicle
7 injuries by another person
5 injuries by trapping
https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/has-your-dog-been-injured.356117/

There are so many other things Untrapped to go target to protect dogs out on a walk than trapper setbacks, the survey above shows that clear as day.

Third concern I have with this is simple. If setbacks go in place for trailheads, trails, and I have personally heard Untrapped say even along public road ways, how will this effect most elderly, limited mobility, and disabled people? They will not be hiking a quarter mile in to set a trap in nearly all instances.

I urge you to not take away the rights of Wyoming sportsmen and sportswomen. Mandatory trapper education, along with higher fines for illegally placed traps will solve this problem, not taking away ten's of thousands of acres of land from us.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, via email or phone. If you yourself have never experienced trapping, I give you an open invitation to ride along with me someday on the trapline so you can experience it first hand.

I thank you for your time and service to this great State of Wyoming,
Trevor Herrman
Cheyenne Wyoming

 

[Jbehredt]

Sounds like greenie transplants are bringing their bright ideas with them.

 

[EdP]

Sounds like more green blight spreading from Cali.

 

[Axlrod]

In Montana we have had set back regulations for as long as I can remember. The trappers i know are pretty successful. But the antis are coming hard, and trapping is their first stop.

 

[go_deep]

In Montana we have had set back regulations for as long as I can remember. The trappers i know are pretty successful. But the antis are coming hard, and trapping is their first stop.

We need to push back and push back hard, the antis need to know we're just not going to sit back and watch them dismantle trapping

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

Every time a dog gets caught in a trap it makes trapping look bad. As a trapper who has found traps in places they should have never been set I support this. Who in their right mind is trapping right off a road, trailhead, etc...? That is just reckless. If trappers cannot use common sense they need to be regulated more. We should throw in laws requiring leashes on all public lands for non working dogs, but that is an entirely different subject.

 

[go_deep]

Every time a dog gets caught in a trap it makes trapping look bad. As a trapper who has found traps in places they should have never been set I support this. Who in their right mind is trapping right off a road, trailhead, etc...? That is just reckless. If trappers cannot use common sense they need to be regulated more. We should throw in laws requiring leashes on all public lands for non working dogs, but that is an entirely different subject.

I don't understand why you'd support a blanket law that would eliminate trapping?
I get some of what your saying, but the vague nature of this could cover a lot of ground, even possibly into private property. Go look at the website of these anti groups, this is the first of many items on their agenda. You give them an inch, next thing you know that inch is a mile behind you in the rear view mirror.

 

[TaperPin]

Many guys have dogs off leash - many here, many everywhere. That’s just a fact of life if it’s letter of the law or not.

This may come as a big surprise, but trailheads are also favorite lunch and camping spots for many of us, not to mention campgrounds, trails, etc. - there are plenty of things for small kids and dogs to watch out for while exploring, but traps set by idiots shouldn’t be one of them.

Trailheads are famous for coyotes and fox poking around looking for snacks - that’s not lost on well meaning dimwit wannabe trapper kids. Smart people aren’t setting traps in idiotic places, but teenagers are famous for doing stupid things, especially at easily accessible areas, and many aren’t brought up being shown what to do, so there’s that. As much as I’d love to block them out of my mind as if they don’t exist, there are also a pretty good number of adult idiots - their numbers even seem to be increasing, and simply yelling at them for doing stupid stupid things doesnt seem to make a difference.

 

[wytx]

Set backs along trails and trailheads makes sense, no need to trap where folks recreate.
Setbacks from roads, not in favor of. Some roads go along and through private lands.

Emails going out, thanks for bringing this up.

 

[MTSasquatch]

We’ve had setbacks in Montana for a very long time. We still catch fur. I’m a trapper, and I think it’s just good business to not set a trap within dinking-around range of a well-used trailhead. Just my opinion.

 

[go_deep]

We’ve had setbacks in Montana for a very long time. We still catch fur. I’m a trapper, and I think it’s just good business to not set a trap within dinking-around range of a well-used trailhead. Just my opinion.

No it's not. Their blanket statements of banning trapping at trailheads, trails, and roads, is a bad deal. It might sounds good to you today, till someone claims the game tail your trapping by is now a hiking trail and every other random trail they deem a trail to push trappers off the mountain. This is their end goal, eliminate trapping, they've said it publicly.

 

[7RemMag]

Every time a dog gets caught in a trap it makes trapping look bad. As a trapper who has found traps in places they should have never been set I support this. Who in their right mind is trapping right off a road, trailhead, etc...? That is just reckless. If trappers cannot use common sense they need to be regulated more. We should throw in laws requiring leashes on all public lands for non working dogs, but that is an entirely different subject.

I was born and raised in Northcentral PA. I do not and have not trapped in Wyoming but am not opposed to the idea in the future, if I could come up with the time. I DID spend most of my teenage years running a trapline with my dad "around the hill" in Pennsylvania. Your first statement was not the case in our experience at all, and it happened with some regularity-even while trapping on private farmland. Education here is the key. Every single time we set a trap in a location that we thought there was a chance someone's pet could get caught; we made it a point to demonstrate to them how to properly release their pet from the trap. See someone out walking their dog near where you're setting iron? Talk to them. Explain what you're doing. We demonstrated, with pictures from prior instances that these traps, particularly the manner in which we set them, were not going to injure their pet.

I can't disagree that setting "kill" traps near trailheads, or anywhere where there is a high likelihood non target animals could be caught, is pretty lousy decision making. Footholds are a different story in my opinion.

 

[go_deep]

I was born and raised in Northcentral PA. I do not and have not trapped in Wyoming but am not opposed to the idea in the future, if I could come up with the time. I DID spend most of my teenage years running a trapline with my dad "around the hill" in Pennsylvania. Your first statement was not the case in our experience at all, and it happened with some regularity-even while trapping on private farmland. Education here is the key. Every single time we set a trap in a location that we thought there was a chance someone's pet could get caught; we made it a point to demonstrate to them how to properly release their pet from the trap. See someone out walking their dog near where you're setting iron? Talk to them. Explain what you're doing. We demonstrated, with pictures from prior instances that these traps, particularly the manner in which we set them, were not going to injure their pet.

I can't disagree that setting "kill" traps near trailheads, or anywhere where there is a high likelihood non target animals could be caught, is pretty lousy decision making. Footholds are a different story in my opinion.

There's a lot going on here, first is that the anti trapping group is using this as the first step of many steps to ban trapping in Wyoming. There are several YouTube videos they've posted where they spell this out as the first step, all the way up to banning certain traps, mandatory posting signs anywhere on public land, even if your 5 miles from a trail, you would have to make a sign and post it on your trap site. At one meeting they even slipped and said all trapping should be illegal.

There's 2 real answers to this problem. First would be a mandatory trappers safety that has an ethics portion to address where a trap should and shouldn't be set based on people traffic, second would be significantly higher fines for illegally placed traps. The dog that got trapped a few years ago and killed, was killed by an illegally placed 330 on dry land, so more laws don't and won't stop people that already break the law, but stiffer fines might.

The other fact here is that per the Forest service, your dog must remain on a leash no longer than 6' at these sites, so why should it be illegal to trap anywhere around these sites to protect pets, that can't even be off a leash? Additional the game and fish had even addressed the fact that good chasing wintering wildlife is the biggest problem they encounter, next to road kill. Dogs, off leash, will chase everything from a mouse to a moose.

I don't want to trap directly at a trailhead in July, or September, but there's tons of trailheads that don't get plowed out and I snowshoe or snowmobile to them in the winter and do trap around them. Those trailheads are abounded in the winter, during trapping season, so this isn't a one size fits all law, and honestly, if the antis get their foot in the door, there'll be more and more laws to push trapping out, then hunters.

 

[7RemMag]

There's a lot going on here, first is that the anti trapping group is using this as the first step of many steps to ban trapping in Wyoming. There are several YouTube videos they've posted where they spell this out as the first step, all the way up to banning certain traps, mandatory posting signs anywhere on public land, even if your 5 miles from a trail, you would have to make a sign and post it on your trap site. At one meeting they even slipped and said all trapping should be illegal.

There's 2 real answers to this problem. First would be a mandatory trappers safety that has an ethics portion to address where a trap should and shouldn't be set based on people traffic, second would be significantly higher fines for illegally placed traps. The dog that got trapped a few years ago and killed, was killed by an illegally placed 330 on dry land, so more laws don't and won't stop people that already break the law, but stiffer fines might.

The other fact here is that per the Forest service, your dog must remain on a leash no longer than 6' at these sites, so why should it be illegal to trap anywhere around these sites to protect pets, that can't even be off a leash? Additional the game and fish had even addressed the fact that good chasing wintering wildlife is the biggest problem they encounter, next to road kill. Dogs, off leash, will chase everything from a mouse to a moose.

I don't want to trap directly at a trailhead in July, or September, but there's tons of trailheads that don't get plowed out and I snowshoe or snowmobile to them in the winter and do trap around them. Those trailheads are abounded in the winter, during trapping season, so this isn't a one size fits all law, and honestly, if the antis get their foot in the door, there'll be more and more laws to push trapping out, then hunters.

I guess that I should have elaborated a little bit and explained that I agree with you entirely. A lot of this seems like “feel good” policy that agencies across the country seem to be really fond of.

 

[Wrench]

Once upon a time you could just burn them out and they'd go away. Y'all got your hands full now.

Good luck. As long as life is easy for them to make yours miserable.....they're going to do it. I'd say you could fight back legally, but knowing that a non resident can't hunt the wilderness makes me think your judges can be bought and the anti's have more money than all of Wyoming put together.

 

[go_deep]

Once upon a time you could just burn them out and they'd go away. Y'all got your hands full now.

Good luck. As long as life is easy for them to make yours miserable.....they're going to do it. I'd say you could fight back legally, but knowing that a non resident can't hunt the wilderness makes me think your judges can be bought and the anti's have more money than all of Wyoming put together.

I do think personal persuasion is defiantly real, monetary or not.

Hopefully people understand that an email and a phone call do make a difference, and that people pick up the phone and make that call, send that email standing against this.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Many guys have dogs off leash - many here, many everywhere. That’s just a fact of life if it’s letter of the law or not.

This may come as a big surprise, but trailheads are also favorite lunch and camping spots for many of us, not to mention campgrounds, trails, etc. - there are plenty of things for small kids and dogs to watch out for while exploring, but traps set by idiots shouldn’t be one of them.

Trailheads are famous for coyotes and fox poking around looking for snacks - that’s not lost on well meaning dimwit wannabe trapper kids. Smart people aren’t setting traps in idiotic places, but teenagers are famous for doing stupid things, especially at easily accessible areas, and many aren’t brought up being shown what to do, so there’s that. As much as I’d love to block them out of my mind as if they don’t exist, there are also a pretty good number of adult idiots - their numbers even seem to be increasing, and simply yelling at them for doing stupid stupid things doesnt seem to make a difference.

Trying to legislate your away out of stupidity has worked so well in the past...smh

How about some good old fashion field work ie enforcement?..write tickets for folks who don't have their dogs on leash, write tickets to trappers that aren't following the rules...not having a budget to do enforcement is not an excuse for new legislation.

 

[TaperPin]

Trying to legislate your away out of stupidity has worked so well in the past...smh

How about some good old fashion field work ie enforcement?..write tickets for folks who don't have their dogs on leash, write tickets to trappers that aren't following the rules...not having a budget to do enforcement is not an excuse for new legislation.

There’s plenty of stupidity of all kinds at trailheads and roads into wild places - you are correct about that.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

There’s plenty of stupidity of all kinds at trailheads and roads into wild places - you are correct about that.

Exactly and there are already laws on the books against most of it.

Sharing a property line with a NF I may be a bit jaded..but I am sick and tired of budget constraints being the excuse for everything.

We, the USA, sent $183 BILLION to Ukraine as of 9/30/24....but we can't get boots on the ground for enforcement or get a damn gate fixed. It's ridiculous...and it won't change with the new administration.

 

[TaperPin]

Exactly and there are already laws on the books against most of it.

Sharing a property line with a NF I may be a bit jaded..but I am sick and tired of budget constraints being the excuse for everything.

We, the USA, sent $183 BILLION to Ukraine as of 9/30/24....but we can't get boots on the ground for enforcement or get a damn gate fixed. It's ridiculous...and it won't change with the new administration.

I watched budget cuts for natural resources cause trails and roads to be in worse shape, staff was cut, fewer kids were hired each summer for doing good things, yet taxes were cut for the ultra rich and the debt went up. We’re in for 4 more years of squeezing the things we like so Elon, Donald, Mark, Jeff and Harland Crow can pay fewer taxes. Look at the group that’s responsible for spending Federal money - the majority in charge of the House of Representatives. Vote for drama filled jokers who accomplish less than any House in history and this is what happens.

Where the love for Russia comes from is beyond me - Putin would cut our throats if he could - look at him for blame for what’s going on in Ukraine. We’ve stretched out the war on purpose to drain Russia of arms and resources - we could have overwhelmed them early on. The cost to us is a cheap way to keep Russia forever a second tier country.