2012 MN trapping legislation: fake

Post date: Mar 27, 2012 6:17:58 PM

March 2012: there are a couple of non-functional proposals now on the floor at the Minnesota State Legislature, pretending to be body-gripping trapping regulations. They're fake.

These non-functional bills were hastily introduced and approved by the Minnesota Senate and House Committees on Environment and Natural Resources rather than hearing the popular dog-safe legislation proposed by the thousands of petition signers of the Safe Public Lands and other petitions.

Judging from the number of errors that were introduced with these bills, and the subsequent denials and corrections of these errors following introduction, it seems clear that the authors of record (MN Legislators) were not the actual authors of these bills. It's also clear that the actual author was not the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which recommended very different body-gripping trap regulations in a draft proposal to the MN Legislature. The actual author seems to have been the Minnesota Trappers Association.

These non-functional bills were included in the omnibus Game & Fish Bills as follows:

Senate Game & Fish Bill SF 1943, Section 47 in the 3/12/2012 version.

  • This bill would only add light regulations (not dog-safe regulations), and only for traps within a very narrow size range. See the Dogs & Traps seminar video #3 for more (okay to jump to 03;12).
    • Until this bill was corrected on 3/6/2012 and 3/12/2012, it would have deregulated the use of large body-gripping traps on land.
  • Before its corrections on 3/6/2012 and 3/12/2012, this bill was dangerous. After its corrections, it's just non-functional. See the blog entry Carlson's typo for more
  • For the few traps it would regulate, it would allow any of the following three uses (all dangerous for dogs):
      • either in a box with an 81-square-inch opening and a 7-inch trigger recess,
      • or unbaited,
      • or three feet above the ground.

House Game & Fish Bill HF 2171, Section 64 in the 3/26/2012 version.

    • This bill would only add light regulations (not dog-safe regulations), and only for traps within a very narrow size range. See the Dogs & Traps seminar video #3 for more (okay to jump to 03;12).
    • Until this bill was corrected on 3/26/2012, it would have deregulated the use of large body-gripping traps on land.
    • Before its correction on 3/26/2012, this bill was dangerous. After its correction, it's just non-functional. See the blog entry fixed typos for more.
    • Yes, the date 3/26/2012 is correct; it wasn't corrected until twenty days after the correction in the Senate Committee on 3/6/2012.
    • For the few traps it would regulate, it would allow any of the following three uses (all dangerous for dogs):
    • either in a box with an 81-square-inch opening and a 7-inch trigger recess,
    • or unbaited,
    • or three feet above the ground.
The #160 body-gripping trap that killed our dog Phillip. One of the "traps that doesn't kill dogs" according to trapping-lobby "experts."

The #160 body-gripping trap that killed our dog Phillip. One of the "traps that doesn't kill dogs" according to trapping-lobby "experts."