Getting Trapped in the System

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) reintroduced legislation to end the use of brutal traps on furbearing animals within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, H.R. 2657, would ban the use of body-gripping traps such as steel jaw leg-hold and Conibear traps on these public lands set aside for wildlife preservation.

Even though steel jaw leg-hold traps have been banned or severely restricted in 89 other nations and in eight states throughout the US, they are still allowed in more than half of our nation’s 550 refuges. In introducing her bill, Rep. Lowey stated, “The use of steel jaw leg-hold traps and other barbaric mechanisms has no place in National Wildlife Refuges or other public lands. Body-gripping traps are cruel and inhumane, and it is time to end this brutal practice once and for all.”