Thanks to Ann Emerson for the contents below . . . last day to comment is today.
I’m sending out this reminder with a plea to you. If you haven’t already sent out a letter to Darren Marsh marsh@countyofdane.com , please do. The deadline for comments is June 9th.
With all the pressing issues going on in our lives I know many of us are feeling that our efforts are pretty futile but I urge you to please do this.
I’m including a part of Patricia Randolph’s 5/15 Cap Times column, where she wrote about the May 9th meeting to allowing trapping in our Dane County parks.
Please read the cruel trapping application http://danedocs.countyofdane.com/webdocs/pdf/lwrd/parks/2011DRAFT_Trapping_PermitApplication.pdf and please write to Darren Marsh marsh@countyofdane.com
http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/article_567b6be8-0e25-5e4d-a71f-3c950752bb6c.html
“I witnessed the ultimate culmination of this insanity May 9 at the Dane County Parks informational presentation of new rules allowing trapping and hunting in county parks. In 2007, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation of rod and gun clubs, headed by George Meyer, former secretary of the DNR, quietly pushed through a rule change that mandates that any and all Stewardship purchases of land, past and future, are required to allow trapping and hunting unless there is a human safety issue. All citizens pay for these lands, but they are to be opened for killing of the wildlife that the rest of us want to experience.
In attendance at the meeting were 15 trappers, George Meyer, 10 parks and DNR employees, and five women citizens protesting the hunting and trapping mandate.
The parks employees were out-and-out groveling before the trappers, asking them if trapping from November through February will be “adequate” — or would it be too burdensome or restrictive for them? The trappers responded that they wanted to examine each park on a case-by-case basis to miss no trapping opportunities.
Why should children be denied seeing a beaver building a dam, or a muskrat swimming in the river? As a mother testified, “So you hide the traps off of the trails? I do not want to know that this is going on and take my children to the parks.”
We’ve been betrayed. Trappers rule. This is totally corrupt and undemocratic. The 2006 National Audubon Society survey of economic impacts of wildlife watching in Wisconsin (click here for survey) shows that 2.5 million Wisconsin wildlife watchers bring 11 times more revenue than hunters to state and local tax coffers.”
For more, see the Dane County Parks website. http://www.countyofdane.com/lwrd/parks/hunting.aspx”
Why is there no safe place for any animals or for us when we simply want to take a walk and enjoy nature? And isn’t it interesting that the DNR wants to “manage” the same fur-bearing species that the trappers will cash in on for the fur?
This is another case of the public being kept in the dark and the special interests (the trappers) framing this proposal for their benefit. In both cases mentioned today, these proposals pass easily into the system as long as the public remains unaware.
Trapping is barbaric and causes serious injuries and extreme suffering to those trapped in these. Can you imagine what that must be like? And until the trapper returns, the animal struggles to set himself free and can be easy prey for other animals. When the trapper returns, the animal will be clubbed, suffocated or strangled to death! Shooting a trapped animal would reduce a pelt’s value. Our parks should be a haven for us and nature, not a place of cruelty.
I’m including also a recent and very disturbing undercover investigation by Born Free http://www.bornfreeusa.org/a10a_victims.php that will show the reality of what the DNR is proposing to allow in our county parks.
I hope you will force yourself to watch this http://www.bornfreeusa.org/flv_player.php?m=medium&rpath=Trapping-Investigation-Public-med.flv and forward this email to everyone you can who would not want such cruelty to any living being.
It is not necessary as they claim, “to manage…that may cause disease, nuisance or damage” From http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?p=53&more=1
“Trappers and wildlife managers play on the public’s fear of rabies and other diseases by arguing that trapping is necessary to control the spread of disease. However, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Academy of Sciences, and the World Health Organization, as well as many other scientific, public health, and veterinary organizations, disagree. The National Academy of Sciences subcommittee on rabies concluded that, “Persistent trapping or poisoning campaigns as a means to rabies control should be abolished. There is no evidence that these costly and politically attractive programs reduce either wildlife reservoirs or rabies incidence. The money can be better spent on research, vaccination, compensation to stockmen for losses, education and warning systems.”16
Rather, trapping can actually increase the spread of disease.17 By removing mature animals who have acquired immunity to disease, trappers make room for newcomers who may not be immune. In addition, animals infected with rabies do not eat during the latter stages of the disease, and therefore do not respond to baited traps. Hence, traps set in an area infected with rabies will more than likely capture healthy animals rather than infected animals, thereby increasing the likelihood that the disease will spread.”
Please write Darren Marsh and tell him you do not want trapping allowed in our county parks. This is morally wrong to do to any living being. Please forward this to others. The deadline is June 9th.
