In their latest proposal to dismantle protection for wildlife, the Ford government wants to allow trappers to bring and use firearms in the woods at night.

Allegedly this change will help ensure that animals caught in traps but still alive are euthanized humanely, but with them having suffered prolonged distress and injury in traps for hours already, if not days, we disagree that this will make trapping more humane.

Instead of allowing loaded guns into the forests at night, let's demand that trapping regulations be made more strict so that wildlife suffers less. If you oppose trapping, let our province know where you stand.

Comments are due July 24th at midnight. You can read the entire proposal here and comment directly, or submit a comment using our form..

MORE INFORMATION

Canada is a signatory of the Agreement on the International Humane Trapping Standards, which evolved as a response to european condemnation of our cruel trapping practices. Nonetheless, the Agreement still allows a threshold of suffering and injuries for different types of animals. Importantly, these threshols don't apply to strangling snares, which are among the cruelest and most indiscrimnate of traps, simply because they are typically homemade. In no way does this Agreement make our trapping practices humane or ethical.

Snares, the most commonly used device for trapping wolves and coyotes, often catch the wrong species (e.g. wolverines, eagles, deer, lynx and even caribou). Unless the unintentional catch is a species at risk, trappers are not required to disclose the mistake, making it impossible to find out how many animals die this way as "collateral damage".

Trapping occurs in many provincial parks in Ontario. The phasing-out plan of this antiquated and controversial practice was backtracked, and will now last as long as the current trapline holders' lifetimes.

Trappers can kill as many wolves and coyotes as they want. Moreover, they are allowed to operate in the suspected range of the threatened Algonquin wolf. They do not have to submit tissue samples or size records to help us determine how many at-risk Algonquin wolves are being killed this way each year, even though trapping and hunting are the main threats to the species.

Ontario wants to keep trapping as part of our natural heritage, even though the industry is seeing fewer young people support it, and the majority of fur is sold to international markets including Russia and China, where fur is used as a status symbol.

Even Canada Goose is feeling the pressure to stop buying fur; they have announced that they will be creating a fur recycling program, rather than purchasing new furs. Is this enough? As consumers, ultimately we all decide what's allowable and what isn't.