Update: Bad news! This bill was passed by both the Senate and the House, and was signed into law by the Governor on 04/01/05.
Bill Description: If passed, SB 50 would re-define a parcel of land within the Fairfield Sanctuary to allow trapping on that land.
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Allowing wildlife to be trapped and killed in cruel leghold traps for their fur at Fairfield Sanctuary is a contradiction in terms and ethics. Body-crushing traps pose a serious hazard to the very animals that sanctuaries are intended to protect, including threatened and endangered species and migratory birds. One tragic example of the impact that these cruel devices have on wildlife occurred in December 2001, when a bald eagle was caught in Oxbow Pit, ME, in a steel-jawed leghold trap set to capture coyotes. The eagle’s leg was badly broken and likely amputated. While this eagle’s life was spared by a game warden — who released and transported the eagle to a vet — how many other wild, non-target animals are captured and killed in these arbitrary devices? Sanctuaries should be maintained as places of true refuge, and trapping should not be allowed at this Sanctuary, nor should the existing opportunities for trapping be expanded at the Sanctuary. Trappers already have access to thousands of acres of lands outside the sanctuaries on which to trap and kill animals.