Gov. Newsom Acts To Ban Trapping In California; Sportsmen’s Alliance Reacts

Governor Gavin Newsom announce he was banning recreational trapping in California, the first state to do so. Needless to say, that won’t go over well in the sportsmen and -women community.  First, here’s the Los Angeles Times on the decision by the governor:

The Wildlife Protection Act of 2019, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, prohibits commercial or recreational trapping on both public and private lands.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), who introduced the legislation, said it was time to end fur trapping. “It seems especially cruel, obviously, and it’s just unnecessary and costly,” she said. …

Gonzalez said that the roughly six dozen trappers still working in the state, down from more than 5,000 a century ago, cannot afford to pay the full cost of implementing and regulating their industry.

Soon after the announcement, the Sportsmen’s Alliance reacted to the decision. Here’s part of the statement from the alliance (read the complete message in the link above:

“By eliminating all trapping, Gov. Newsome and the California legislature have removed an important wildlife management tool, and it is highly likely that residents of California will see an increase in unwanted encounters with wildlife, the possibility of increased rabies outbreaks and increased budget issues as the state will require more resources to deal with the fallout.”