Measure 97 would prohibit the use of steel-jaw leghold traps and other traps commonly used to capture mammals. It would also make the sale, purchase and exchange of raw fur obtained through the use of such traps illegal and the use of poisons sodium fluoroacetate and sodium cyanide illegal.
The measure would, however, allow for special use permits from the state department of fish and wildlife for padded jaw traps and non-strangling foot snares for dealing with pests, if a landowner could successfully prove that he or she had tried alternatives methods of pest control.
Supporters of the measure, however, have a hard time acknowledging there is any use for traps.
Kelly Peterson, campaign manager for the measure, said that many animals suffer for days after being caught in traps before dying from starvation or escaping after chewing off their own limbs.
She said farmers and ranchers should look to alternative methods, such as electric fencing and territorial animals, including dogs and llamas, to keep predators at bay.
“Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for traps, but we’re trying to make it a last resort rather than a first response,” she said.
Andy Anderson, executive vice president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, a farmers’ advocacy group that is opposed to Measure 97, said the main reason his group opposes the measure is that it would hinder state farmers’ ability to protect crops from damaging pests that kill livestock, eat crops or tunnel beneath crop fields and into irrigation ditches. He also found fault with what he said was the measure’s vague wording that prohibited all “body gripping” devices, which he said could be used by animal activists to outlaw many essential tools of the livestock industry like squeeze chutes, head gates and even lariats.
“While the proponents are saying it isn’t their intent,” he said, “our lawyers tell us they think they could make it stick.”
Anderson said agriculture is a tough business to make money in, and Measure 97 would only make it tougher because it would put in place a bureaucratic rigmarole that would make it hard for farmers to deal with pests.
He also said that while the department can’t make an official stand, he has heard from Department of Fish and Wildlife workers that Measure 97 would limit the department’s ability to manage state lands.
Body-grip traps targeted
Daily Emerald
October 24, 2000
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