2022 Wildlife Bills

Governor Scott signed the following wildlife-related bills in 2022

H.411, a bill that addresses the wanton waste of wildlife (for example: using certain animals for target practice without any intention to eat the animal). While H.411 exempted coyotes from protection, it is a strong wanton waste law.

S.281, a bill that begins to address hunting coyotes with packs of hounds. The hounding of coyotes (and bears) has been at the heart of multiple conflicts and has resulted in injuries to both people and pets.

S.201, a bill that requires the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Commissioner to come up with best management practices for trapping.

Legislative Updates

To our dismay, local trapping and hounding lobbyists who have ties to national sportsmen’s groups are engaged in a misinformation campaign to say the wildlife bills below are anti-hunting. This couldn’t be further from the truth. See our statement on hunting here, and watch the testimony for yourself using the links below:

HOUSE - this link goes to our H.411 testimony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ZPh8zl3Vc&t=3823s

SENATE - this link goes to our testimony on S.129, S.201 and S.281

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTavkRHilk&t=165s

HOUSE Committee on Natural Resources, Fish & Wildlife

H.411

This bill addresses the wanton waste of wildlife. https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2022/H.411

Wildlife advocates have been working on this issue specifically since 2018. See more information on H.411 and our action alert.

Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy

Please write to the Senate Natural Resources Committee and let them know you support S.129, S.201, and S.281. You can send your email to Judith Newman jnewman@leg.state.vt.us

S.129

This bill addresses wildlife governance. See our key messages on S.129. We are trying to change wildlife governance in Vermont because wildlife is a public trust for ALL Vermonters, yet decisions about wildlife are made by a small special interest group that holds a lot of power, is selected via a secretive process, and has little or no accountability to the public. It is critical to understand that the Fish and Wildlife Board, which is a 14-person board made up of hunters, trappers, and anglers who are regular citizens and NOT wildlife professionals, are the decision-makers when it comes to rules for all trapped, hunted, and fished animals. That means the fate of bobcats, otters, beavers, fisher, moose, coyote, fox, and a host of other animals is up to this Board. In contrast, the Fish and Wildlife Department is made up of wildlife professionals (most of whom also hunt and fish). The Department makes recommendations to the Fish and Wildlife Board, but the Board has the final decision authority. We support the Board being advisory only and not having final decision authority. The reason for this is that Board members run the gamut, from those who do not think climate change is real and believe in old wildlife myths that have been disproven long ago to those who have businesses that profits from decisions they make (e.g., extending a trapping season). They tend to trust their feelings or their individual perceptions about something instead of looking at the broader evidence. Because they tend to have a limited point of view, they have consistently approved or seriously considered petitions brought forward by trappers to extend a season or change a rule and rejected petitions brought forward by anyone who is not part of their special interest group.

Our wildlife is a public trust. Our wildlife governance should represent public interests not special interests. Wildlife management should be based on facts, science and ethics, not the opinions of 14 un-credentialed lay people.

S.281

This bill addresses coyote hunting with GPS-collared hounds. The activity is nothing more than legalized dog fighting, which is a felony in Vermont. Coyote hunting hounds are sent after a lone coyote in a chase that can last several hours. As the hounds catch up to the coyote, they tear at it over and over, eventually killing the lone coyote or injuring until the coyote hunter catches up to the hounds and kills it. These coyotes are going about their lives in the woods, where we want them, and hounds often chase them across roads and onto private land. Coyote hounds have attacked both people and their pets with little to no consequences. See more information here (scroll down to the hounding section).

S.201

In a nutshell, this bill proposes to end recreational trapping in Vermont. It would allow “nuisance” trapping where reasonably necessary for the protection of such things as public health, crops, domestic animals and livestock. In those cases the trapping would need to be done by trained, licensed trappers.

No bill is perfect, and we would like to see colony traps included in this bill. (Colony traps kill by drowning the animal, which is cruel and inhumane. It takes several minutes for an animal to die by drowning.)

What problem are we trying to solve?

There's nothing abstract about trapping. It's rarely about putting food on the table. It is sometimes about making a small profit. It has minimum conservation value. It brings fear, pain and premature death to animals that are caught. It is indiscriminate and can catch unintended animals who happen to find the bait. Unintended catches include birds, dogs, cats and a range of wild animals.

Trapping Myths

1. It is “highly regulated.” FALSE. Trapping in Vermont means no bag limits on any species. It means no reporting of numbers killed of any species but three (otter, bobcat, and fisher). It means “by-catch” of unintended wildlife (owls, hawks, etc.) and domestic animals or pets and a general difficulty in enforcement that make any claim of being “highly regulated” potentially toothless.  

2. It is “humane” or “quick-kill.” FALSE. The official Best Management Practices (BMP) standard for these political euphemisms is not instantaneous or a few seconds as most humane people might imagine. For a beaver in a ‘Quick-Kill’ Conibear 330 the BMP requires only that 70% of trapped beavers die within 300 seconds (five minutes; and 30% taking any amount of time longer). Underwater sets killed in under nine (9) minutes. Drowning is a horrendous way to die. It is never a humane method of killing. Colony traps are designed to drown multiple animals at a time.

3. It is a “management” or “conservation tool.” FALSE. A common refrain is that trappers help control populations. It requires some fanciful biology to believe that predators like bobcats, fishers, otters, minks, and weasels, need population control. Predator populations have been naturally regulated for millions of years without any help from us. We don’t manage owl populations, yet we are not overrun with owls. Territoriality and prey density are natural regulators of predator populations. The argument is often made that trapping provides the Fish & Wildlife Department (FWD) with data to track the health and population levels of trapped species. First, given that body counts are only required for three species, that seems flawed. Moreover, the best (if not only) remedy the FWD has if a species were to show a decline, would be to restrict further trapping so that the FWD essentially allows trapping in order to determine how much trapping they should allow; absent a compelling reason to trap, that is not scientific management.

Death is a necessary part of life and we all kill, whether directly or not. However, we shouldn’t wallow in it. Our ancestors did and long ago wiped out the main predators for deer (along with most of the deer for a long while). Deer have rebounded and now, hunting is a critically important conservation tool. Few furbearers fit that ecological dynamic.

We should not kill without good reason or need, and then only do so quickly. Trapping, despite its history and utility in times past, has in recent decades, descended to a recreational niche from where its inherent cruelty (BMPs notwithstanding) fails that ethical standard.

Bringing this bill to passage will be a long journey, but as John Kennedy was fond of saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We need to begin this journey. We might do well to remember the words (often attributed to Goethe) of the mountain climber, William Hutchinson Murray:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”