What’s Wrong with Idaho

Update, Tuesday, August 27, 2018 here.

Do you think trapping is cruel. I do.

How about snaring (neck snares consist of a light wire cable looped through a locking device and are designed to tighten as an animal struggles). Trappers claim that these devices (if used as advised) are humane, as they are designed to compress the carotid arteries, thereby reducing blood flow to the brain which, ideally, would quickly lead to unconsciousness and then death.

Pretty horrific, and completely legal in many states here in the USA, including in Idaho.

Dr. J. Diaz, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary has researched the time it takes for canids to die from strangulation. His conclusion is that: “Death can take hours through an extremely painful and slow process.” Dr Diaz notes that he cannot comprehend the decision of government “to elicit this kind of suffering and pain to a living being.”

In Idaho a trapper is required to check their trapline every 72 hours—that’s 3 very long days for an animal to suffer in a trap before being “dispatched.” The nice folks over at Idaho Fish and Game have decided that checking snare traps every 3 days just isn’t right—they have proposed to extend the time period by which any person must visit every snare placed for gray wolves to eight days in portions of GMU 7 and GMU 9 from January 1st through February 15th.

Eight days.

Eight long days.

Snaring is as cruel as it is indiscriminate, and though snares are set with the intention of being quickly lethal to a captured wolf (or whatever other poor critter happened upon a trap), there is absolutely no guarantee of a quick kill. If a wolf is wearing one of those delightful radio collars, then the suffering will be immense.

Because of the limited amount of winter access in these remote units it is impractical for most trappers to run a trap line in compliance with the 72 hr check requirement.

“Impractical.”

My God, what about the pain and suffering.

Proponents of the rule state that because snares are typically lethal very quickly, the 72hr check frequency is unnecessary.

Horrors.

Please speak out against this nightmare. Please make a quick comment here, and tell Fish and Game that you do not support this proposal. The deadline for your submission is August 20th, 2018. Please take action now. Note: If the website is down, please send an email here: jon.rachael@idfg.idaho.gov

Also note that because the website for commenting was down, the comment period has been extended 8 hours to August 21st, and ends at 12:00 noon MT.

Sample email:

Dear Commissioners,

This is a shameful, abhorrent proposal.

Dr. J. Diaz, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary has researched the time it takes for canids to die from strangulation. His conclusion is that: “Death can take hours through an extremely painful and slow process.” Dr Diaz notes that he cannot comprehend the decision of government “to elicit this kind of suffering and pain to a living being.”

Please do not move forward with this rule, show some compassion for the animals that are not quickly killed by this barbaric apparatus.

Sincerely,

Your name

Our apologies for such short notice with this “take action” post.

If you are on Twitter we have a short list of tweets to raise awareness about this atrocity. They can be found here.

Bad enough that the proposal to extend the wolf hunting season clear into June in many areas (when pups are too young to fend for themselves) has gained approval “in response to hunter and trapper requests for more opportunity.” Pure bloodlust.

Again, our apologies for asking for your help at such a late date, and thank you for taking to time to respond to the aforementioned proposed rule.

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Published by intheshadowofthewolf