COMMENTARY: Sen. Williams—we will not “get over it”

January 10, 2025  |  By Brenna Galdenzi 

The new vice-chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Terry Williams, R-Poultney, kicks off the legislative session with a rude and dismissive response to a constituent's concerns about trapping. 

A constituent wrote Williams a polite, lengthy email outlining various concerns with trapping. Williams' response: "Get over it..."

Sure, Williams lists trapping as one of his recreational pastimes on the legislature's website, but he must not place his personal agenda before the people he was elected to serve. Is Williams emboldened by similar hot-headed antics and partisan favoritism with the new lieutenant governor in office? Probably. I was the target of similar hostile treatment by Lt. Gov. John Rodgers when he sat on Senate Natural Resources. 

Is this the Republican Party that Gov. Phil Scott is proud of? For a governor who often talks about turning down the temperature and vitriol, he surely stands behind politicians who do the exact opposite. 

I've sat in on countless committee hearings on both the House and Senate sides where the issue of trapping has come up. Leaders including former Sen. Chris Bray, D-Bristol, were always inclusive, respectful, and fair when communicating with trapping lobbyists and trappers themselves. Same goes for the House where leadership would work with sportsmen's lobbyists to accommodate their schedules only for the lobbyists to accuse them of preferential treatment. Wildlife advocates cannot expect the same treatment from people like Williams.

The topic of trapping will never go away, and despite the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife's desire to greenwash trapping by promoting so-called "best management practices" for trapping, the evidence of extreme suffering is obvious. A recent example: A woman was walking her dog in Pownal on Dec 31, 2024, on a trail she's enjoyed since her childhood, only to have her dog painfully ensnared in a leghold trap. She and her partner could not remove the trap from her yelping dog and had to enlist help from a third person. When the dog was released and brought to the vet, it was determined that the dog had broken teeth with painful exposed tooth pulp and also soft tissue damage to the paw. The dog was only in the trap for 25 minutes. Imagine the injuries that wild animals like bobcats, coyotes and foxes endure for a day or longer while trapped.

Various surveys reveal that the majority of Vermonters want to ban trapping, but due to Vermont Fish & Wildlife essentially operating as a lobbying arm for trappers, we are not surprised by their tone-deaf response to this reality. A University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies survey revealed 75% of Vermonters who responded want to ban all leghold, kill and drowning traps. Vermont Fish & Wildlife's own 2022 survey conducted by Responsive Management, a company that conducts surveys for state fish and game agencies, revealed that only 26% of Vermonters approve of trapping for recreation, which is the bulk of trapping performed during the legal season. Their survey also revealed that only 42% approved of trapping and when asked if they support "regulated" trapping responded at 60% (the 60% figure is what they publicize). 

Approval of "regulated" trapping could mean that people approve of Fish & Wildlife having regulations which govern trapping, not that they approve of trapping as an activity. The survey has been accused of using persuasive and craftily worded questions to elicit a desired response. Despite that, the answers still reveal that trapping is not well-supported by Vermoters, even when greenwashing efforts are attempted. 

In addition, when the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association conducted a survey, 66% did not approve of traps, even those under the guise of "best management practices" approved traps. Some of the veterinarians who took the survey are rural vets who work for farmers, so let's not assume that those vets who oppose trapping are urban-centered vets working in Burlington. Speaking of those urban vets, retired veterinarian Dr. Peggy Larson has gone on record multiple times stating, "As a veterinarian, I have treated cats and dogs caught in traps. Most required amputation of the affected limb. The tissue damage was extensive and infected. Some dogs had broken teeth from biting at the trap."

Let's pull the proverbial band-aid off. Not until Vermont bans the use of leghold traps will Fish & Wildlife and the legislature rest. The Vermont public will continue to demand that these indiscriminate land mines that are responsible for such senseless and torturous suffering be banned just as other states including Colorado and Arizona have done. 

Sen. Williams, we will not “get over it.”

Stowe resident Brenna Galdenzi is president of the animal welfare organization, Protect Our Wildlife Vermont.