Column:Animal trapping brutal,legal in New Mexico by Richard “Bugman” Fagerlund and Holly Kern, Daily Lobo guest columnists
Eight states – Washington, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida and Rhode Island – have banned the use of leghold traps, but New Mexico, of course, is not one of them. It is unconscionable that less than 1 percent of the population traps and approximately 75 percent of the population opposes trapping. Yet this barbarism is still legal.
The only justification for trapping animals is to skin them, process the skin and then make them into coats and stoles for narcissistic little twits to wear when they go out on Saturday night. All of the fur coats in the world are not worth the bone-wrenching screams of a single animal caught in these mindless traps.
Trappers can kill and skin a coyote and sell the hide for $2. What do they do with coyote skins? Have you ever seen anyone walking around wearing a coyote coat? They can sell skunk and raccoon skins for about $5, but they will get close to $30 for a bobcat kitten. Who on earth would want to wear the skins of kittens? …
Trappers like to lump themselves in with hunters because they know without hunters, they cannot win. But hunting is fundamentally different from trapping. The hunter must be present throughout the stalk.
The trapper can be home drinking beer while the trap is destroying the heart and soul of a helpless animal.
In New Mexico, it is illegal to shoot an animal at night – even a coyote. Traps do their job all night long. It is illegal for hunters to sell the meat of the animals they kill. The purpose of trapping is the sale of the skin.
It is illegal for hunters to use a scent attractant to get an unfair advantage over their prey. Trappers use these to attract the animals to their traps.
Hunters have bag limits. Trappers can kill and kill and kill without a limit of any kind on any species. Hunters, if they are ethical, will identify their target and take careful aim to insure a quick and clean death. Trapping is indiscriminate and anything but quick and clean. A helpless animal in excruciating pain will get his skull bashed in, usually with a pipe or shovel. Then the trapper stands on his chest to be sure he is dead.