Commentary: Keep pets safe this trapping season

November 12, 2024  |  By Sophie Bowater

The recreational trapping season in Vermont begins on the fourth Saturday of October each year and lasts through March 31. 

For some animals like otters and beavers, this season lasts for five long months. There are no limits on the number of animals a trapper may kill. There are also no limits on the number of traps that may be set, including on our shared public lands. 

Leghold and body-crushing kill traps are non-selective by design, so a trap set for a bobcat or a beaver can just as easily catch a dog or protected species like great blue herons. Every year, non-targeted victims are referred to as “bycatch” or “incidental takes.” These captures should be published on Fish & Wildlife's website so that the public is aware, however the only way we ever learn about these horrible incidents is through Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to Fish & Wildlife. 

You might notice that the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife often refers to the trapping season as the “regulated” season and what that means is that largely unregulated trapping occurs year-round if wildlife is deemed a nuisance by landowners or municipalities (under the statute title 10 VSA §4828). This means that leghold and kill traps are not just a danger during the “regulated” recreational trapping season, but year-round with little oversight in a largely unregulated open season. 

Unlike other states, Fish & Wildlife is not notified if landowners or towns set traps. They're not even notified after the trapping occurs and animals are killed! The state has little knowledge of how many foxes, beavers, bobcats and other animals are injured or killed every year during what amounts to an open season.

The public may also be surprised to know that despite the fact that Fish & Wildlife was required to change the trapping regulations under Act 159, these dangerous traps may be set on public lands with no required signage. Traps are baited with enticing items like animal carcasses and scent lures placing any curious animal at risk. Traps are often hidden under leaf debris or dirt making them virtually invisible. Wildlife advocates encouraged Fish & Wildlife to require that traps be placed at a far distance from the public, but Fish & Wildlife refused, allowing traps to be set a mere 50 feet from heavily traveled hiking trails. For powerful kill traps that are placed in shallow streams and culverts, there are no trap setbacks at all! As someone who walks in the woods with my dogs and children, these new regulations are far from adequate. 

Another inadequate regulation change is that Fish & Wildlife still allows exceptionally cruel methods of capturing animals.  Despite Act 159's attempt to make trapping less inhumane, steel-jawed leghold traps are still the trap of choice for trappers. So-called “best management practices” for trapping still inflict tremendous suffering on animals. You can read more about that on the legislature's website here. According to this report, “[Best management practice] research revealed that certain animals like raccoons and skunks have a higher probability of serious injuries due to self-biting as a result of being restrained in leghold traps, yet leghold traps are still included in the [best management practice] recommendations for raccoons.”

If your dog or cat is unlucky enough to find themselves ensnared in a steel-jawed leghold trap or worse, a body-crushing Conibear trap, releasing them safely, or releasing them at all, is not easy. Just last year, a dog was trapped in a kill trap set for beavers in Castleton. (see here) The dog was a large German Shepherd and the dog's size saved his life. A smaller dog would've died. Another dog wasn't so lucky. She lost her life to a kill trap in Underhill. You won't ever hear about these tragedies because the state knows it's horrible P.R. for trapping.

But the question we should really be asking ourselves is why any animal, wild or domestic, should be allowed to be tortured in traps in the name of recreation and tradition? If an animal is to be trapped, it should be for a very good reason, not for

a recreational hobby.

Sophie Bowater

North Middlesex