November 15, 2019 –  House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowry (NY) has reintroduced a federal bill, the “Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act” which seeks to end the use of body-gripping traps in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The Refuge From Cruel Trapping Act would prohibit the use of body-gripping traps in the National Wildlife Refuge System. These traps include:

• Steel-jaw leghold traps: designed to shut immediately after an animal steps in them, often mutilating the limb or paw. These traps have been banned or severely restricted in more than 100 countries and seven states.
• Conibear traps: designed to slam shut on an animal’s spinal column and kill instantaneously. Studies and undercover investigations have shown that animals that enter these traps at certain speeds or in particular places die slowly and painfully.
• Strangling neck snares: designed to tighten around an animal’s neck the more it struggles. These traps are notoriously brutal yet widely used because they are cheap and simple to operate.

Why is this legislation important? 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. 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.

Thank you, Rep. Lowey!