SENATE MEMORIAL 75

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

Tim Eichenberg

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO DIRECT THE APPROPRIATE COMMITTEE TO HEAR TESTIMONY ON ANIMAL FUR TRAPPING IN NEW MEXICO.

     WHEREAS, animal traps are indiscriminate, capturing those not intended for the trap, including endangered animals, pets and people, and can leave permanent physical damage to anything that gets caught; and

     WHEREAS, coyotes and skunks can be trapped year-round without a license, so traps are placed in New Mexico year-round; and

     WHEREAS, a 2005 statewide survey of New Mexicans revealed that sixty-three percent of voters are against trapping on public lands and that fifty-nine percent of New Mexicans are unaware that trapping is legal on public lands or believe wrongly that trapping is illegal on public lands; and

     WHEREAS, Arizona, Colorado, California and Washington have banned trapping on public lands; and

     WHEREAS, animals suffer pain, trauma and stress when held by traps, and immobilized animals can experience dehydration, hunger, panic-induced self-mutilation, exposure to weather and predation, all of which constitute animal cruelty; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has conducted few wildlife population studies, and no one knows how many animals are trapped for their fur; and

     WHEREAS, according to the United States fish and wildlife service, wildlife watchers spend two hundred ninety-seven million dollars ($297,000,000) annually in New Mexico, while, according to a 2004 study by the department of game and fish, trapping netted the state only six hundred seventy-one thousand dollars ($671,000) that year; and

     WHEREAS, the number of fur trappers in New Mexico is approximately two thousand, less than one-hundredth of a percent of the total state population, and they pay only twenty dollars ($20.00) for a resident license; and

     WHEREAS, the department game and fish imposes no limits on how many animals can be killed by licensed trappers, nor has the department established trapping zones, so heavily trapped subpopulations can be wiped out completely; and

     WHEREAS, the department of game and fish does not require that trappers report unprotected and nontarget wildlife that inadvertently gets caught in traps, such as coatimundis and porcupines, nor must trappers report the capture of people's pets;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico legislative council be requested to direct the appropriate committee of the legislature to hear testimony on animal fur trapping in New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the co-chairs of the New Mexico legislative council.

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