PETITION TARGET: U.S. Representatives
Wild animals are having their bones crushed, their spines snapped, and their lives slowly suffocated out of them in vicious traps that are currently legal and allowed in National Wildlife Refuges.
Now, a new bill seeks to end this torture. The Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, or H.R. 5217, seeks to amend the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act to ban the use of steel-jaw leg-hold traps, conibear traps, and other “body gripping” snares from these public lands.
“Over half of our nation’s 568 wildlife refuges still permit trapping, putting humans, companion animals, and endangered species at risk of severe injury,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, one of the bill’s sponsors. “It’s clear that these traps have no place on protected lands.”
Wild animals caught in traps will often do anything they can to escape and survive — including chewing off their own limbs. Because snares don’t discriminate, “non-targeted” species — including river otters, rabbits, and birds — also end up dying in these monstrous traps.
That’s a particularly important point given that the National Wildlife Refuge System is incredibly biodiverse — with more than 700 birds, 220 mammals, and more than 380 endangered species.
The wild animals who call these protected lands their home should not be gruesomely and inhumanely killed simply because they exist.
Sign our petition urging U.S. representatives to prioritize and pass this critical bill and so help prevent brutal suffering for countless animals.
