Of the 48 states that allow recreational and commercial trapping, only 26 demand that would-be trappers complete an education course prior to the grant of a license.
The content of the trapper education courses does not just focus on best practice and trapping methods, but is part of a wider public relations exercise to uphold the archaic pastime. The very first paragraph of the New York State Trapper Education Manual reads:
“Trapping is enjoyable and it provides a variety of benefits to those with the knowledge and ability to do it well. But, if trapping is not done right, it can cause bad feelings towards trappers and trapping. Therefore, trapping is a serious business. The future of trapping depends on the way you as a trapper perform.”
– New York State Trapper Education Manual
Worryingly, it appears that a fundamental reason for the courses is to protect the image and future of trapping against those who would criticize it. Trapping, we are told, is not a “serious business” because it takes the lives of millions of innocent animals each year, but because, if not done right, it can cause bad feelings towards trappers and damage public perception of trapping.
The manual continues to paint a sanitized and romanticized history of trapping in the United States, skipping directly from mention of the beaver fur trade helping to support the establishment of European settlers to this statement: “Thanks to sound wildlife management, large populations of furbearers still exist.” The manual thereby suggests a centuries-long, unbroken chain of responsible management of an ever-abundant population of furbearing animals. In fact, the U.S. fur trade devastated beaver populations, all but driving the species to extinction. It is certainly not thanks to trapping that furbearers are plentiful today.
Some manuals, including the one published by Wisconsin and based on a template produced by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), also go to some lengths to promote ideological viewpoints that pit the trapping community against those who oppose the practice. Arguing that only a small number of “animal rights activists” are opposed to trapping on ideological grounds, rather than on the basis that trapping is simply cruel, the manuals suggest that trappers are both concerned with, and promote, animal welfare, as follows:
“Most Americans, including those who trap, care about animal welfare. A small number of people hold animal rights beliefs. A person concerned with animal welfare wants to minimize pain and suffering when animals are trapped, or used any other way. A person who believes in animal rights believes animals have a right not to be trapped at all.”
– AFWA Trapper Education Manual
In fact, while animal rights advocates certainly oppose trapping, one does not have to align with a strict animal rights position in order to oppose the cruelty and suffering that traps inflict on their innocent victims. Indeed, more than 100 countries around the world have banned or heavily restricted leghold traps because these contraptions are recognized as fundamentally cruel. It is disingenuous to suggest that only a “small number of people” are opposed to trapping on a purely ideological basis and that trapping can somehow coexist with animal welfare.
In the same vein of cynically distorting the reality of trapping, of great concern is the statement in the New York Trapper Education Manual:
“When trapping in the water for semi‐aquatic species, all traps should be placed in a manner that will submerge the captured animal. This causes a quick and humane death.””
– New York State Trapper Education Manual
Despite the assurance that drowning is a humane way to kill an animal, there is no truth to this statement. Indeed, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has categorically confirmed that “drowning is not a means of euthanasia and is inhumane” in its Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals: 2020 Edition.
Other state manuals perpetuate the falsehood that drowning is a humane form of killing. The AFWA manual states, under the heading: “Describe two ways to safely, quickly, and humanely dispatch a furbearing animal,” states that “Inexperienced trappers should focus on making selective water sets using submersion techniques…”
Even the description of the traps themselves used in the courses give potential trappers incomplete and misleading information. Euphemistically referring to snares as “cable devices,” AFWA manual describes them as “Live-restraining traps [that] are designed to capture an animal alive and unharmed.” In reality animals caught in snares are regularly caught by the neck and strangled to death. Even those who do not die in the snare often suffer serious injury to limbs as they struggle against the wire designed to tighten the more they fight against it. The same section of the manual describes foothold traps in the same manner, but the injury caused by foothold traps, including animals losing paws or limbs, is well documented. To suggest that either of these devices capture animals unharmed is demonstratively false and defies logic.
The above examples are just some of the ways in which the courses designed to educate those with an interest in trapping mislead and provide inaccurate information. Much effort appears to have been spent ensuring that trapping is presented in positive light, even when that means promoting information that is simply untrue.
You can help Born Free USA to end trapping across the U.S. by:
- Urging Amazon to stop selling traps
- Contacting your governor about trapping in your state
- Reading and sharing our new trapping report, Crushing Cruelty
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Liz
