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LWV CA Ed Fund LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CALIFORNIA EDUCATION FUND
Nonpartisan Pros & Cons of

Proposition 4

TRAPPING PRACTICES. BANS USE OF SPECIFIED TRAPS AND ANIMAL POISONS.

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Initiative Statute.

THE QUESTION

Should state law prohibit commercial and recreational animal trappers from using body-gripping and leghold traps? Should the use of two specific poisons for killing animals be banned?

THE SITUATION

California law currently permits the use of body-gripping and leghold traps to capture and kill certain fur-bearing and nongame mammals for commercial and recreational purposes. The state Department of Fish and Game issues these trapping licenses.

Landowners and certain government employees are also allowed to capture or kill specified mammals that cause damage or threaten crops, livestock, and wildlife, or public health and safety. Permissible methods to capture or kill these mammals include shooting, trapping, and poisoning.

THE PROPOSAL

Proposition 4 would ban body-gripping and leghold traps in California for commercial and recreational trapping mammals classified as nongame or fur-bearing. It would also prohibit the use of sodium flouroacetate (Compound 1080) and sodium cyanide to poison animals, and makes violations misdemeanors. It does not affect the current use of cage or box traps, and common rat and mouse traps, nor the governmental animal control use of conibear and snare traps, and padded steel-jawed leghold traps when absolutely necessary.

FISCAL EFFECT

According to the Legislative Analyst, there could be additional enforcement costs for the Department of Fish and Game, and there would also be unknown additional state and local costs ranging from several thousand dollars to a couple of million dollars annually for animal control to comply with the provisions of this measure.

SUPPORTERS SAY

  • The steel-jawed leghold trap and other body-gripping traps are cruel and injurious tools for the capture and killing of animals.
  • Using Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide to poison animals also poisons the environment and threatens humans and their pets.
OPPONENTS SAY
  • Today's wildlife management tools are the most humane ever, and this measure would ban tools needed to conserve threatened and endangered species.
  • Alternate methods of capture are not as effective and can be just as harmful and deadly as the methods that would be banned by this measure.

(Analysis prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund.)


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Last updated: August 30, 1998
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