Update: Great news! This legislation failed.
Bill Description: If passed, this bill would override state rules to expand the bobcat trapping season from 200 bobcats per year now to 2,000 a year from now and an unlimited number after that.[teaserbreak]
Bobcats were almost extinguished from Iowa by the over-use of traps and loss of habitat. In fact, bobcats were listed as endangered species in 1977 and they were removed from the threatened species list barely 5 years ago. It is inconceivable that the state would expand the trapping of these animals tenfold 5 years after they were removed from the list of threatened species. Common sense dictates that it is too soon for the state wildlife agency to have had the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate and study the population of bobcats since their de-listing.