From the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter:
Dear Fellow New Mexican,
Trapping for fur and predator control is still legal on almost all of New Mexico’s wild lands including the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area in the Gila National Forest. Highly endangered wolves are being captured, injured, and maimed by the steel jawed leg-hold traps which are legally allowed where wolves are located.
Allowing indiscriminate traps (or snares which can also be lethal) on the range of vulnerable wolves makes no sense. Please contact federal officials to request that trapping for fur or predator control in the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area cease immediately.
Only 41 lobos remain in the wild. Since 2002, 12 have been trapped inadvertently in New Mexico and two of those have had to have their legs amputated. One of the amputees has since perished while the other has a mate who is also three-legged from an unknown cause.
As a remote wild place with many prey animals the Wolf Recovery Area offers everything lobos need to survive. However, with so few wolves still in the wild, allowing these devices is irresponsible. Please ask federal officials to prohibit traps from the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area.
Get involved! Join our wildlife action team.
Thank you for all that you do,
Mary Katherine Ray
Wildlife Chair, Rio Grande ChapterP.S. To protect wolves, the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club has also sent a formal petition to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service to stop all trapping and snaring in the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area. You can read the petition here.
Governor Richardson has just recently issued an executive order supporting a ban on wolf trapping, read about it on our website.
We appreciate you support on this issue. Please share this alert
Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter: Email – Help Stop Wolf Trapping in the Gila