I have always loved books on trappers, Frank Bird Linderman's "Montana Adventure" or Bud Moore's "The Lochsa Story" fill me with wonder and sometimes make me wish I was borne 150 years earlier, but I'm not. I would not doubt if this passes. If those gathering signatures came to my door, I would not sign, and if it were on the ballot, I'd vote no. Not necessarily because I think it is a bad idea, but because I'm kind of on the fence and it would effect people I love who do trap.
Trapping is not hunting. Saying that people who hunt should oppose this bill is like saying because I own guns I should join the NRA. I have two primary concerns with trapping:
1. The ethics of trapping are not nearly as coherent as those of hunting ungulates
2.The number of trapper/forest user conflicts will do nothing but rise as use increases and access decreases. Which in the end will favor the forest user.
As to 1, I find it difficult to justify trapping in light of what we consider ethical when it comes to hunting big critters. If what is/isn't ethical in hunting is grounded in animal suffering(and I believe it is) then there are contradictions in what we would find appalling when it comes to ungulates (for example: snaring an elk) and what is perfectly reasonable for a bobcat, in spite of a bobcat having a higher neurological function, and thus a higher capability of experiencing what humans talk about when we talk about suffering. I am well aware that trapping is not the evil-bloody-pawed-screaming event that Footloose MT portrays it as. But I lump the emotion of fear into the category of suffering when it comes to sentient creatures, and freezing to death or drowning also exceed my personal threshold on what is an acceptable amount of suffering involved in destroying an animal life.
Additionally, even though skilled trappers usually catch the animal they are targeting, there are non-target casualties, many of which go un reported and are a damn shame. But then again, why wouldn't a trapper not report non-target animal casualties in light of the possibility of his/her lifestyle being voted away?
As to 2, the argument goes to the forest user. It would be fair to say that in the same way wolf lovers are irrational about wolf hunting because wolves look like their dogs at home, a significant amount of passion against trapping is borne from pets being caught in traps. I do not shed-hunt certain gulches around my home with my dog because I know there are traps in them, but from utilitarian point of view, trappers take up a lot of real estate and there are probably not as many of them as there are people wanting a place to let there dogs roam free. If you are one of those people who thinks dogs should never be more than 10 feet from their owner-even in the woods- then I feel sorry for your dogs.
Combine the forest user/trapper conflict with the perceived shaky-ethical-ground that trapping is on already, and I think the days of trapping on public lands may be over.
