Take Action! More Calls Needed! New Mexico members should continue to contact their State Senators. Ask them to vote NO on Senate Bill 286. Currently this bill has been assigned to the Senate Conservation Committee. New Mexico sportsmen are encouraged to use the Sportsmen’s Alliance’s Legislative Action Center to contact their State Senator.
On Tuesday, Feb. 21, the New Mexico Senate Conservation Committee tabled a bill that would ban all trapping on all public lands in the state. Instead, the committee decided to hold Senate Bill 286, sponsored by Sen. Pete Campos (D-District 8), to allow committee members to gather more information on the proposal.
This action does not kill the bill for this session. Instead, it’s likely that the bill sponsor will try to amend SB 286 and bring it up for a vote prior to the Senate’s March 17 adjournment.
If passed, nearly half of New Mexico would be off limits to trapping, making effective wildlife management nearly impossible since predators and other wildlife do not recognize the difference between private and public property. Trapping protects livestock from predators. It controls disease-causing wildlife populations. It protects other wildlife from over population. Senate Bill 286 is bad for public safety and welfare. It’s bad for New Mexico’s ranchers. And it’s bad for wildlife. Trapping is tightly regulated by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. Both federal and state wildlife experts agree that trapping is an essential aspect of wildlife management.
On Election Day this past November, voters in Montana soundly rejected a ballot initiative that would have banned trapping on public land in the Big Sky state. The initiative, supported by the anti-hunting and trapping lobby failed with more than 63 percent of voters rejecting the same claims being made in New Mexico by animal-rights groups.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.