This just in Josh, sheds a little more light on the issue.
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Our Views: Overturn the ban on traps
The Olympian
March 17, 2003


The state Senate has passed a bill to nullify most of Initiative 713, an ill-conceived ban on the use of body-gripping traps.

The initiative was approved by 54.6 percent of Washington voters in November 2000. But all it takes is a simple majority in the Legislature to overturn the citizen-passed initiative.

The House should follow the Senate's lead. The initiative appealed to the animal lover in all of us, but was seriously flawed from the outset. Those flaws have led to confusion and the destruction of golf courses, parks, gardens and lawns by moles, gophers and other burrowing animals that are protected by the ban on body-gripping traps.

The statewide ballot proposition before voters in 2000 asked simply: "Shall it be a gross misdemeanor to capture an animal with certain body-gripping traps, or to poison an animal with sodium fluoracetate or sodium cyanide?"

The Human Society of Washington, a prime sponsor of Initiative 713, engaged in an emotional, yet deceptive, campaign to push the initiative to the ballot box. A photo of a kitten with its paw caught in a trap topped each petition that was circulated for signatures. In their voter pamphlet statement, supporters of I-713 said, "For every 'target' animal killed by a trapper, studies indicate there are up to 10 'non-target' victims."

The math didn't add up. In the two years prior to adoption of the initiative, trappers took 20,000 beaver, fox, otter, raccoon, muskrat, mink, coyote and other fur-bearing animals in Washington state. Using the math of initiative proponents, that meant up to 200,000 cats, dogs, sheep and other "non-target" animals had been snared in traps. Yet the Humane Society could only document 60 cases of pets caught in traps in the last 20 years.

From the outset, there was confusion over the language of the initiative. Proponents said the ban did not extend to mole and gopher traps. Opponents disagreed. Fish and Wildlife officials have consistently said mole and gopher traps are body-gripping and are thus banned.

"The use of a mole trap in the state of Washington could cost you $5,000 or a year in jail," said Sen. Bob Oke, R-Port Orchard. "We're out of balance. There's a lot of good, honest citizens in the state of Washington who are protecting their property."

But private property owners haven't been the only victims. Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Hoodsport, noted a year ago that cemetery managers are unable to manage moles leaving unsightly mounds of dirt and disrupting the final resting place for loved ones. Large landowners, especially timber companies, have a legitimate need to get rid of nuisance pests -- like mountain beavers that chew on young trees and can devastate entire crops of new trees. Farmers say they have suffered serious damage caused by coyotes, beavers and otters.

Oke has introduced Senate Bill 5179, which allows the use of body-gripping traps to address animal problems, for scientific research and for population control.

The bill passed the Senate on a lopsided vote of 37-12. Sheldon and two other South Sound senators, Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, and Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, supported the bill. Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Olympia, was one of the 12 "no" votes.

Initiative 713 was ill-conceived and poorly drafted from the outset. It hasn't worked.

Members of the House should join the Senate in repealing the trapping ban. Let's manage animal resources through the Department of Fish and Wildlife, not through emotion-packed initiatives that have unforeseen consequences.

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