Pro-Trapping petition to the state government. Sign here!

[Wahotaho]

Nearly a year after Washington state voters banned most forms of trapping, landowners, wildlife officials and trappers say they're dealing with the consequences.  Dam-building beavers flood timber land.  Coyotes snatch more lambs.  River otters treat salmon hatcheries as all-you-can-eat buffets. 


Initiative 713 bans the use of body-gripping traps to capture any mammal for recreation or commerce in fur.

This petition requests that part of Initiative 713 be amended and that the Washington state government legalize trapping during the general trapping season with padded body gripping traps for the good of our state.

Many people in our fair state have the false impression that ALL body gripping traps are downright cruel.  This isn’t always true, because when people think of body-gripping traps they think of steel traps with razor sharp teeth that break the leg of their victim.  But padded traps are a painless, more effective and yet still a humane way of trapping.   As seen in this video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpu-EPStTVg


You may be thinking why not just use cage traps*? Good question, cage traps are not nearly as effective as padded foot traps, which is the reason that trappers haven’t been nearly as successful** after Initiative 713 was passed.  This law has caused populations of certain animals to rise, creating an imbalance in the Eco-system.  This has resulted in too many otters eating salmon, wolves snatching lambs, raccoons passing rabies to humans and other animals etc.

Padded traps also aren't bad for the environment because the population of fur bearing animals regularly goes up in the spring, because the carrying capacity*** for wildlife goes up, animals are born then in the winter when the carrying capacity goes down.  The surplus animals usually die of starvation, disease or predation.

In comparison padded foot-hold traps cause way less suffering to the animal that will likely die anyway.

The idea of padded traps being illegal is very illogical because it indirectly threatens human lives.  Who could justify that?

*A cage trap is a device that the animal walks into to get some bait inside, and steps on a trigger which closes the door.
**Trapper success reports can be found here: http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/harvest/
***The carrying capacity is the number of animals that one habitat can safely support.

Go here to sign.:
www.change.org/petitions/washington-state-government-say-no-to-rabies-and-other-problems-caused-by-wildlife#share

Go here to see my other petitions:
trappershaverights.blogspot.com/
Sincerely,
William Aho

[onetrapper]

Lots of unintended consequences too....probably more animals trapped now at all times of year..wasting a resource and trapping pregnant and worthless animals.  Now a few people charge for a formallly free service.  The game Dept lost their most accurate means of measuring furbearer populations over long periods of time...although they did not help fight this Dumb law.
Will sign gladly

[HORSEPOWER]

Done.  But I don't do facebook so I can't pass it on that way

[Wahotaho]

Thanks for the signature. Tell your friends!

[dayn]

I signed, but would like to see underwater conis and mole traps included, as well, guess we gotta start somewhere though.

[Alpinist]

Is this a joke? "Nearly a year after Washington state voters banned most forms of trapping..."
Initiative 713 was passed 12 years ago, not 1 year ago.

Also, the entire text of the petition is as follows:
"To:Washington State Government
Say "NO" to Rabies and Other Problems Caused by Wildlife
Sincerely,
[Your name]"

We need to continue to support serious efforts to overturn Initiative 713, but this isn't it.

[Machias]

I sure won't give someone a hard time who is trying to do something, but I will say it is complete bunk that padded legholds are more humane.  They can acutally cause alot more leg and foot damage than a standard leghold trap.

[TeacherMan]

I sure won't give someone a hard time who is trying to do something, but I will say it is complete bunk that padded legholds are more humane.  They can acutally cause alot more leg and foot damage than a standard leghold trap.

Agreed! A well laminated steel solid trap is the best way to go for you and the animal.

[JLS]

I sure won't give someone a hard time who is trying to do something, but I will say it is complete bunk that padded legholds are more humane.  They can acutally cause alot more leg and foot damage than a standard leghold trap.

Agreed! A well laminated steel solid trap is the best way to go for you and the animal.

Offset jaws or standard?

[jackmaster]

i will sign gladly, i have a ton of traps that have all been offset or laminated just hangn in the garage takin up alot of space, not to mention slide bars, wire and boxes and boxes of chain and swivels, and trap stakes and the list goes on and on, well in short they would sure look alot better in the woods somewhere help control the bobcat population, show me where to sign. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

I agree with Machius.. Once the animal is caught by the leg ...not the body  They try to get out by jumping - twisting and rolling trying to free themselves and doing damage to their legs ...I would love to see trapping come back into Washington but I think once they sign a petition in Washington it is never going to be over turned ...Just my opinion but nothen wrong with trying ...

[Machias]

I sure won't give someone a hard time who is trying to do something, but I will say it is complete bunk that padded legholds are more humane.  They can acutally cause alot more leg and foot damage than a standard leghold trap.

Agreed! A well laminated steel solid trap is the best way to go for you and the animal.

Offset jaws or standard?

Both have shown to be much better at preventing leg and foot damage than alot of the so called padded jaws.

[onetrapper]

Am all for it but work through the Association...I did not sign because I am leary of the mandatory Email address etc

[Wahotaho]

Yes, I know that the animal gets more injured with the padded trap than with the standard leg-hold trap, but it's the only way to convince the bleeding hearts.

[dayn]

How bout padded conibears?