Leg Hold Trap

News Story From Michael Bell and Howard County Times

Investigators, lawmakers, get involved in trap issue 

By Martha McPartlin 

Maryland Natural Resources Police last week opened an investigation into the 
placement of a leg-hold trap found near the Columbia Association's Fairway 
Hills Golf Course that snared a fox last month.

Meanwhile, CA board member Linda Odum of Long Reach said she would make it 
her "personal initiative" to end the association's trapping and killing of 
animals.


"In the world of Linda, people don't trap animals _ ever _ with leg-hold 
traps," Odum said.

Also, two legislators recently introduced bills in the Maryland General 
Assembly that would ban statewide the use of leg-hold traps like the one that 
snared the fox in Columbia.

Natural Resources police spokesman John Surrick said investigators will 
interview witnesses and other people quoted in an article that ran in the 
Howard County Times last week about a fox that was caught in a leg-hold trap 
placed near the golf course and a neighboring apartment building.

Investigators will look into how far the trap was set from the apartment 
complex and whether whoever set the trap was licensed by the state, which 
would allow that person to trap after Howard County's hunting season ended 
Jan. 6, Surrick said.

Penalties range from $120 for trapping too close to a residence to $320 for 
trapping off season, natural resources police spokeswoman Renee Samuels said.

The story was sparked by a Columbia man who found a fox trapped behind his 
apartment and called wildlife rescue workers to free it.  The trapped fox was 
videotaped by a friend of the apartment-dweller, who supplied the tape to 
this newspaper.

The fox was taken to a rescue facility for medical treatment, where it had 
two toes removed.  No decision has been made about when and where the fox 
will be released.

Inquiries by this newspaper could not determine who set the trap, but 
Columbia Association officials say the association hired a contractor in 
November to trap foxes and beavers at Fairway Hills because the animals were 
digging up the course's greens.

The contractor, Robert Dunker, could not say if the trap in question was his.

A reporter from this newspaper measured the distance from the apartment 
complex to the spot where the trap was discovered and found it to be roughly 
50 yards, or 100 yards short of the distance the law requires such traps be 
set from residences.  The trap, which is legal in Maryland, is about 4 to 5 
inches in diameter and has smooth steel jaws.

Policy on traps

Odum and CA board member Barbara Russell of Oakland Mills said they will ask 
the board to assign a committee or task force to draft an environmental 
policy for CA that would address the association's use of traps.

Odum said she does not fault CA staff for hiring Dunker because she believes 
officials were doing what they believed was best, "based on their perceived 
corporate responsibility," to protect the golf course.

But trapping should be addressed with other issues _ such as the use of 
chemicals on CA property _ in an environmental policy that would give staff 
direction in the future, Odum said.

"My appeal to my colleagues is 'We need to start on that immediately,'" she 
said.

Russell also asked that the board consider a moratorium on CA trapping while 
the board drafts a policy.  "While I'm not a person to put animals above 
people, I certainly put animals above a person's golf score," she said.

CA has no plans to trap more animals at this time, CA spokeswoman Keisha 
Reynolds said. Residents are invited to give input on a CA environmental 
policy at a hearing Feb. 13, she said.

To avoid spreading rabies to other parts of the state, Maryland requires 
trappers to kill foxes and some other animals upon capture, rather than 
relocate them.

Unless the state will allow testing on captured foxes for diseases, followed 
by relocation, she will advocate that CA stop trapping foxes on its land, 
Odum said.

"I can't think of any damage to the golf course that would be so heinous that 
I would kill the animals," she said.

Legislation pending

Legislation introduced recently in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates 
would make leg-hold traps illegal.

Del. Barbara Frush, a Democrat who represents parts of Anne Arundel and 
Prince George's, sponsored the House bill, which is virtually identical to 
one she introduced last year, Frush said.

"I'm not saying you can't trap, I'm saying you have to do it humanely," she 
said.

The senate bill is sponsored by Sen. Sharon Grosfeld, a Democrat from 
Montgomery County.

Frush's bill last year did not make it out of the House Environmental Matters 
Committee, which also will consider this year's version.  Frush pulled the 
bill last spring when it appeared it would not pass the committee.  She is 
more optimistic of its chances this year.

"I know if I can get it to the floor I can get it passed," Frush said.

Two Howard County legislators, Democratic Dels. Liz Bobo and Frank Turner, 
have signed on as sponsors to the bill.  Bobo and Frush are members of the 
20-person Environmental Matters Committee.

"I really believe [that using leg-hold traps] is cruelty to animals," Bobo 
said.

Del. George Owings, a Democrat from Calvert County who serves on the 
Environmental Matters Committee, said Frush's bill is too broad and that he 
will oppose it.

"We have a major problem with nutria on the Eastern shore," Owings said, 
adding that a ban on leg-hold traps would make it difficult to control the 
population of the rodent-like animals.

Owings said he has introduced a number of pro-animal bills in the past, but 
that he supports the rights of sportsmen, including those who hunt, fish and 
trap, who are being discriminated against, he said.

"There is this ongoing urban and rural battle that continues to take place," 
he said. "There is an encroachment on a way of life."

The debate over the traps has a long history in the legislature, Bobo said, 
including an occasion five years ago when former Del. Marsha Perry, a 
Democrat from Anne Arundel County, brought a leg- hold trap onto the House 
floor to lobby for a ban on the devices.

Bobo said she voted for a ban then, and plans to do so again.  Turner said he 
also supported the ban last year, adding that the devices are unnecessarily 
cruel because animals snared in them often are trapped and in pain for 
several hours.

"It's one thing to die quickly, it's another thing to suffer to die," Turner 
said. 

E-mail Martha McPartlin at mmcpartlin@patuxent.com.

Links to information on Leg Hold Trap issues

NATIVE-L (July 1995): Against the Leg Hold Trap

The Fur Bearers Association for the protection of Fur Bearing animals

The Padded Trap - DON'T Be Fooled

Washington Initiative 713 (Anti-Leghold Trap)