Bill would shrink trap check interval
Farm and ranch lobbyists hope legislation doesn’t get a hearing
Mitch Lies
Capital Press Staff Writer
SALEM - Farm and ranch lobbyists and wildlife services officials are keeping watch on a bill that would reduce the maximum allowable time trappers could go between checking predator traps.
Senate Bill 672, sponsored by two Portland Democrats, is in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee. It has yet to be scheduled for a hearing - and farm and ranch lobbyists hope it never gets one.
The bill would reduce the maximum allowable trap check interval for most predatory species from 76 hours to 24 hours.
A federal official said the bill would cost Oregon farmers and ranchers up to $5.5 million in livestock and crop losses by dramatically reducing the number of traps USDA wildlife services agents could operate.
The 26 federal wildlife services agents serving Oregon provide trapping services to about 4,400 farmers and ranchers each year, said Dave Williams, director of USDA Wildlife Services. Williams estimated trappers could service fewer than 1,000 farms and ranches under a 24-hour trap check interval.
Maintaining existing service levels under a 24-hour interval, he said, would cost the state about $500,000.
"You want to check traps as often as possible," Williams said. "You want to know if you're getting the job done; if you're getting the animal that is causing the problem. But things come up. Therefore, the flexibility of 76 hours is critical."
The 76-hour interval was established in 2004 by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission after nearly a year of debating the issue. It provides flexibility for agents, many of whom serve farmers and ranchers for hundreds of square miles, Williams said.
Senate Bill 672 also eliminates provisions in current law allowing trappers to go a week between checking traps in cases of ongoing predation and up to a month between checks of kill traps.
The bill also stipulates that only licensed trappers can check traps, eliminating the ability of a farmer or rancher to check a trap set by an agent.
"I don't see much wiggle room there," said Larry Cooper, a deputy administrator of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, when asked if he could see any flexibility in the bill.
The bill requires 24-hour trap check intervals for traps set for coyote, badger, beaver, bobcat, fisher, gray fox, marten, mink, muskrat, nutria, opossum, otter, rabbit, raccoon, red fox, spotted skunk, striped skink and weasel.
Farm lobbyists believe the bill is a reaction to the disappointment animal rights activists expressed after the state wildlife commission established the 76-hour interval for most predator species in February 2004.
The Humane Society of the United States had asked the commission to set the interval at 24 hours or at the most 48 hours.
Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of the society, promised at the time to bring forward a ballot initiative "to halt the use of inhumane traps in Oregon."
Oregon law requires traps set for fur bearing animals such as bobcat, raccoon and mink, be checked every 48 hours. Traps set for coyote and other predators must be checked every 76 hours, except in special circumstances, such as ongoing predation.
