Posted on 09/05/2019 6:34:06 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a measure Wednesday making the state the first to ban fur trapping, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Wildlife Protection Act bars commercial or recreational trapping on both private and public land, according to the Times.
The commercial trapping industry shaped the early economy of California and the American West in general but has played an increasingly smaller role over the decades.
“It seems especially cruel, obviously, and it’s just unnecessary and costly,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D), who introduced the bill. She added that the roughly 70 trappers who continue to work in the state, compared to thousands a century ago, cannot afford the cost of regulating the industry, according to the Times.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife data indicates 68 trappers killed 1,568 animals throughout the state in 2017, including coyotes, badgers, minks, gray foxes and beavers. To avoid damaging the furs, these animals were strangled, shot or beaten to death.
Despite the decline in trapping in the state, outrage at the practice has been widespread since 2013, when conservationist Tom O’Key came upon a bobcat trap illegally set on his land, according to the Times.
“I could not have guessed in a million years that trap would spark an unstoppable movement capable of shifting legislative thinking toward wildlife,” O’Key told the newspaper. The incident also led to the Bobcat Protection Act of 2013 and a 3-2 vote by the California Fish and Game Commission to ban commercial bobcat trapping.
Guess they want to save the mice and rats.
Also, contrast this to the nonchalant way they allow baby killing via abortion!
Wow, I knew California was heavily in the tank for the poofters but you’d think they’d at least consider the lesbians in their efforts to shut down heterosexual dating....
/runsaway
Abortion is essentially the “sacrament” of the Left.
Small wonder the Satanists feel more comfortable with them.
I thought all California women shaved down there anyway...
You can believe that this will lead to more nuisance animals, which means that government trappers will be called in.
Not to worry, there will be abundant rat, mouse and racoon hides available in California cities, naturally equipped with diseases and plague.
Certainly enough for all.
DemocRats must have feared we were going to put a bounty on them.
People like Lorena Gonzalez think all forest creatures wear little white gloves and speak English.
Somewhere the maturity gene got lost...
Dear California,
Just get it over with. Ban all human activity.
This is exactly what the founders were concerned with.
The majority running roughshod over the rights of minority interests.
Only 60 trappers in the state, operating under extreme regulations...
Can’t allow that because it offends my sensibilities...
What stupidity and shortsightedness.
60 should be 68.
When have Democrats ever been concerned about unnecessary and costly meddling by government -- especially this crowd.
The San Andreas needs to clean up its domain.
Bring back Compound 1080!
There’s no “funner” days-long party than Fur Rendezvous in Anchorage in February. Hope AK has no ideas about prohibiting trapping.
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They'd be better off banning muff diving.
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