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Trappers like to say that if trapping with leg-hold and lethal traps is banned on public land, then hunting will be next. However there are some important differences between trapping and hunting.
Foremost is that trapping is not considered “fair chase” by ethical hunters. The Fair Chase rules were established at the turn of the century by men including Theodore Roosevelt to counter the over-exploitation of wildlife that was occurring at the time. Fair Chase is a way to place the hunter and hunted on a more equal footing and insure the outcome is sporting.
The hunter places himself in the prey’s environment and must be observant and stealthy to make a kill. In trapping, the animal is captured while the trapper is not even present and killed while it is restrained. It is illegal to hunt any animal in NM at night, but traps work day and night. Night is when animals are most active and vulnerable.
Hunters in NM may not use bait or scent attractants, but trappers may. Hunters are restricted by bag limits. Trappers are not. Hunters may donate their kills to the hungry, but they may not sell them. The point of trapping is to sell the animal’s fur.
Deer killed by leg-hold trap.
Photo courtesy of
Humane Society of the US.
Elk. Photo courtesy of Jim Robertson.
Continued from left: Note
No other wildlife if commercialized in this way- not fish, not quail, not deer, not elk. Ethical hunters will identify their quarry and take careful aim to insure a swift, clean kill. Trappers have no idea what will be in the trap nor how badly it will already be injured. The actual kill is brutal in order to not harm the pelt. Often the helpless animal is strangled to death with the catch pole. It may also be bludgeoned in the head and rendered unconscious, then the chest cavity stood upon to rupture the heart. Sometimes it is shot execution style.
If a hunter kills or wounds an endangered or protected animal, it is called poaching and he will face steep fines and jail time. The trapper is not held liable in any way if his trap does the same thing. Being opposed to trapping on ethical and conservation grounds is not an anti-hunting position.
