Trapping has no place in modern society. Trappers contribute nothing to communities or to supporting our public lands. They instead steal our chance to see wildlife and torture wildlife for fun, and now offer bounties of up to $1000. Trappers contribute about $300,000 yearly in licensing fees, with each trapper and wolf hunter destroying 30 wolves. The state and groups like the Foundation for Wildlife Management continue to try to create a rural economy based on the trapping and destruction of wolves. Yet wolf viewing alone in Montana brings in more than $85 million a year! Still, trappers can set traps on the border of Yellowstone and steal the right to see this beautiful animal in the wild from us.
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Trappers destroy beavers for fun, as many have told me. Yet, with climate change, beavers are the only species that store water, releasing it slowly, which is vital to our changing climate. Remember, the West was teeming with water, springs and beaver dams, while modern development has left it arid. The price of fur remains at record lows; no one profits from trapping. However, bounties, like those in the 1870s, are the initiative of the Foundation for Wildlife Management, a trappers’ group with substantial funding from trophy groups. They are providing the bounties in Montana, while in Idaho, they have already secured legislative financing for them.
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Coyotes are being killed without regard and are considered varmint in Montana; all this occurs without the understanding that animals feel pain, love, and suffer when a pack member dies, but many trappers argue that wildlife feels no pain. Such a sophomoric and disingenuous mentality explains why trapping must be banned. These are not normal people! They love to watch the torture of an animal.

There is no reason wildlife must be tortured. Why is trapping viewed as a recreation, when it is devoid of fair chase and captures far too many unintended species, known as bycatch? They were living, breathing animals that simply wanted to co-exist, yet these people see it as their right to torture and kill, and they must be stopped. Governor Greg Gianforte is a trapper and a low-life. He killed Max, the wolf, and continues to kill wildlife on the Yellowstone border.

In the Bozeman region alone, more than 252 family pets were caught in traps in recent years, and many died or lost limbs. How can we allow this to continue?
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Trappers set out land mines across our public lands, endangering people, pets, and wildlife. Federal and state agencies do little to stop this madness; the consequences are real.

Wildlife is being stolen from us by thugs who enjoy beautiful wild animals’ suffering. The time has come to stop this NOW.