Editor,

I can’t help but think that as the weather cools, trapping season is just around the corner starting on Nov. 1 and lasting all the way through Mar. 15. It is still legal in New Mexico for trappers to hide these cruel devices on public lands where everyone recreates in order to profit from the sale of fur from the public’s wildlife. Animals like foxes, bobcats, and coyotes will all be suffering in the months to come as they languish with a limb crushed in a leg-hold trap and await their death when the trapper returns.

I am so grateful to Representative Christine Chandler for sponsoring the bill that will prohibit traps like these and the wildlife exploitation that goes with them from our shared lands. Not only is this exploitation of wildlife for fur pelts a violation of the North American Model of Conservation that disavows such commercial sale, allowing this cruelty and suffering to go on in our modern age violates our sense of decency and humanity.

Thank you Representative Chandler for your courage to fight the status quo, for standing up for wildlife, and standing up for those of us who enjoy seeing wildlife alive on our public lands. With your steadfast perseverance, I hope New Mexico can join other states like our neighboring Colorado and Arizona to outlaw traps on public land. I stand with you too!

Terry DuBois
Los Alamos