Thank you for publishing “Local trappers weigh in on wolf regulations” in the Sept. 30, 2021 issue of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder.
As a veterinarian I have the honor of attending to illnesses and injuries of animals. Among the worst and most painful are trapping injuries.
Rotting, foul smelling, gangrenous limbs. Broken toes and pain. We know that the pain of diminished circulation is profound, in animals as well as humans, and traps do that most of all simply by the intensity of how they “hold.”
Most of the injuries I tend to are unintentional but trapping is not. It is a “sport” done for “pleasure” with the excuse of “management” being necessary.
Management of apex predators is not necessary. Starvation, injuries and the general difficulties of predators’ lives keep their numbers in check.
What if we didn’t kill ANY wolves? Would they decimate the game? If so, why didn’t that happen in the millennia before humans came to North America. Why was America teeming with game – and wolves – when Lewis and Clark surveyed the west?
Maybe the new regulations won’t destroy the wolf populations, but they will certainly cause a great deal of pain and suffering. Trapper Bob Sheppard was quoted in the article, “The more you know about something, the less you fear it. People fear the unknown. If they learn about this stuff, even if they are not a trapper, they can be more comfortable.”
I would disagree. The more people know about trapping, the more horrified they will be at its cruelty and the people who find pleasure causing such suffering.
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