By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
A New Mexico legislative committee has advanced a bill that would ban trapping on public lands in the state with few exceptions. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation strongly opposes the bill.
The Senate Conservation Committee voted 7-to-2 on Tuesday to advance SB0032, the “Wildlife Safety and Conservation Act.” It now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Roberto “Bobby” J. Gonzales, D-Ranchos de Taos and others, has the support of “Trap Free New Mexico,” a coalition of conservation groups including Animal Protection Voters. It would ban trapping on federal lands including Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management properties but would not cover private lands.
Jessica Johnson, chief government affairs officer for Animal Protection Voters, served as an expert witness for Gonzales at Tuesday’s hearing and answered questions about the bill. Supporters call the bill “Roxy’s Law,” after an 8-year-old dog that was killed by an illegally set trap north of Santa Fe in 2018.
Bill co-sponsor Sen. Brenda G. McKenna, D-Corrales, told the committee that it’s a harrowing experience for people to see their pets in traps.
”Many humans can’t disarm them with their own hands,” McKenna said of traps and snares. “We have to use our feet, and we have to be calm, cool and collected, all while trying to free our animals and they’re going through high distress and pain.”
Garrett VeneKlasen, northern conservation director for New Mexico Wild, told the committee that, although he grew up trapping, he now supports the ban. VeneKlasen said he’s an avid hunter and angler on public lands.
“This is the commercialization of public wildlife,” said VeneKlasen. “We can’t talk about eliminating commercialization of elk and antelope and deer tags and then out of the other side of our mouth sportsmen say that it’s OK to commercialize furbearers. I think there’s a great deal of contrast of interest here.”
VeneKlasen said trapping can be nasty business. “It’s not great in my mind for sportsmen to have this association,” he said. “There are so many people in the woods now, it’s not like when I was a little kid. I think it’s time to set trapping aside and use legitimate means of hunting to harvest our wildlife.”
Kevin Bixby, executive director of the Southwest Environmental Center, was also among opponents of the bill. “Traps on public land pose a threat to our members and all public land users,” he said. “They’re like landmines, basically, waiting to harm whatever unfortunate creature happens to step on them, whether it’s a wild animal or a pet dog, or a horse carrying a rider or God forbid a human being.”
Speaking against the bill, Kerrie Cox Romero, executive director of the New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides, said trapping is not an archaic practice but an important tool used by every wildlife management agency in the country.
Romero noted that the New Mexico State Game Commission enacted new trapping regulations last year that limited trapping equipment and methods. The commission specified that trappers must undergo mandatory classes. It also protected trapping on several popular recreation areas near the state’s population centers and also near trailheads.
“We oppose this legislation for several reasons but primarily because the concerns that have been expressed over the years by the Legislature and by members of the urban public have actually already been resolved,” Romero said. “Yet this bill provides absolutely no recognition of that effort.”
Tyson Sanders, a conservation officer with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish addressed the committee on behalf of the New Mexico Conservation Officers Association. He noted that the state game commission responded after the Legislature considered a similar trapping ban proposal two years ago.
“I ask you to please let government do its job,” Sanders said. “You’ve asked Game and Fish to address the issue and it has. With ever-changing wildlife dynamics, please allow wildlife managers and conservation officers the flexibility to manage these dynamic issues as they have over the past century.”
Sanders said furbearers have been managed properly through trapping. “The number one threat or detriment to conservation is anti-hunting sentiment not founded in science but rather emotion and personal bias,” he said.
Sen. David M. Gallegos, R-Eunice, said it gives him heartburn that the Legislature is considering the trapping ban while the new game commission trapping regulations have only been in effect for a few months. However, the committee voted against his suggestion to table the bill until the committee could hear from the game department on its assessment of the bill.
Gallegos and Sen. Steven P. Neville, R-Aztec, voted against the bill while all seven other committee members voted for it.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF, recently wrote to members of the Senate Conservation Committee emphasizing that trapping is an important wildlife conservation tool and a legitimate use of a renewable wildlife resource.
Deubel noted in his letter that animal rights activists working to ban trapping commonly present highly emotional reports about the inadvertent trapping of pets. However, he said nearly all these incidents have involved illegal, unregistered traps. He said the NMWF believes it’s fundamentally unfair to hold the state’s responsible trappers accountable for the actions of a few scofflaws. Outlawing trapping in response to these incidents would be equivalent to outlawing hunting statewide in response to a few poachers, he said.