Discussion Topic: On Montana’s Anti-Trapping Initiative
A initiative brought by a group named Footloose Montana and entitled the “Montana Trap-Free Public Lands Act” has been approved...
A initiative brought by a group named Footloose Montana and entitled the “Montana Trap-Free Public Lands Act” has been approved for signature gathering and needs a little under 25,000 signatures to get on the 2010 ballot. If passed, it would ban trapping on public lands.
Footloose Montana says they are not an animal-rights group, are not associated with PETA or the HSUS, and that they have hunters and anglers on their board. In the initiative, they make the following arguments (among others), from the Great Falls Tribune:
_–Trapping conflicts with hunting ethics by indiscriminate killing of many species, including endangered, threatened and sensitive species. . . .
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_–Trapping does not honor the hunters’ ethical code of “fair chase,” or the time-honored principles of quick and efficient kill.
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_–Trapping creates waste. For every wild furbearer killed, many more non-targeted wild and domestic animals are killed and discarded, in violation of hunting and outdoors ethics.
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_–Trapping commercializes wildlife.
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–Profit-driven trapping for exotic fashion markets conflicts with conservation and managing wildlife as a public trust.
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