Trapping emotions

When emotion rules, reason suffers.

Idaho trappers feel the noose of potential rule changes tightening around their livelihoods, and some respond angrily to proposed incursions on their activity.

Pet owners feel threatened by the hidden traps that have recently injured or killed family friends not far from hiking trails, and their emotions, too, run hot.

On the periphery of these two central figures in the trapping debate are many others with strong feelings: people who appreciate the traps that erase predators near populated areas, people who hate the traps based on considerations of cruelty, people who approve of trapping because it's an extension of hunting, people who object to trapping because it's an extension of hunting.

Right now, as the Idaho Department of Fish and Game seeks public input on trapping, emotion appears to be prevailing. It's time for a deep breath and a more analytical view.

Trapping has long been one tool for the state to manage wildlife, so it isn't just the trappers themselves who profit from the practice. Yet when hidden lethal traps can be set a few feet from a maintained hiking trail on many public lands, common sense has vacated the area.

Trappers should help themselves and others by voluntarily setting traps only in the most remote areas of public property. This issue broiled to the surface only recently, when at least two family pets were killed by traps set close to popular passages for two-legged and four-legged visitors alike. Move the traps far from trails and the issue is likely to move well away from the public's consciousness again.

Refusal to do that should lead to, at minimum, mandatory warning signs being posted wherever traps are set on public lands. We understand trappers don't want to do this for fear of theft or other problems, but public safety must always outweigh other considerations, so change from the current practice is necessary in some form. Reasonable compromise could stave off more radical solutions, like banning all trapping on public lands.

Please continue to share your thoughts and ideas via letters to the editor and comments posted online. For more information, visit: fishandgame.idaho.gov.