Loophole allows ‘nuisance’ killings

By BRENNA GALDENZI​
Vermont’s official trapping season ended on Saturday, but trapping and killing continues throughout the year under Vermont statute 10 V.S.A. §4828  that allows property owners and their agents to kill animals in order to protect property, even when no actual damage has occurred. The way the statute is written now essentially allows for a year round, open season on foxes, raccoons, bobcats and a host of other wildlife who may be considered a “nuisance.” Protect Our Wildlife has submitted a request for amendments to bill H.636, an act relating to miscellaneous wildlife subjects and need the public’s support. 

Beneficial language was initially included in an earlier version of H.636, but due to pressure from F&W Commissioner Louis Porter and the trappers, the House committee omitted the language from the bill before passing it out of the Committee.

POW’s amendment seeks to fix two major problems that result in unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of animals. The amendments:

1.) Require that a wild animal be actually causing damage to property before a landowner or municipality is allowed to kill the animal. The state of Maine has similar language that we hope to use – if it works for Maine, it can work for Vermont.

2.) Require individuals who kill wildlife for compensation, known as Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (NWCOs), to be trained and licensed and to report the animals they kill each year. At present, NWCO activity is completely unregulated and results in inhumane practices, such as drowning and leaving baby animals orphaned. 

The lack of regulations also presents both a public safety risk and consumer protection concerns. The state of N.H. has a NWCO training program that their Fish & Wildlife Department has found to be effective. Sadly, VT Fish & Wildlife opposes this and is once again letting down our wildlife in favor of trappers’ interests. 

Each year we learn about avoidable tragedies involving wildlife who are killed under the “nuisance” wildlife statute. For example, just last year a heron was caught in a trap set for beavers by a NWCO and had to be euthanized because the injuries were so severe. Another NWCO took a photo of a turtle that he caught in a kill trap set for beavers – the turtle was alive in the photo, but it’s unlikely that s/he survived. 

Some NWCOs are ignorant of even the most basic wildlife knowledge  – a NWCO in Bennington kills opossums because he thinks that they’re a rabies vector species. Not only are opossums not a rabies vector species, they rarely contract rabies due to their low body temperature.

Our proposed amendment would also stop the informal “open season” on furbearers, since landowners would no longer be able to preemptively kill wildlife that’s suspected of causing damage. Last year a farmer allowed hunters with dogs to chase down and kill raccoons who the farmer feared might get into his feed bins. 

One of the hunters took a photo of two raccoon pups huddled at the base of a tree, fearing for their lives. Their mother was likely chased up a tree by the dogs and killed. 

We also just learned of a Fish & Wildlife Hunter Education Instructor who sets traps each May, through the end of summer, and drowns the trapped animals, including raccoons, opossums, skunks and others. He told us that he drowned 23 skunks in one year for no apparent, legitimate reason. Drowning is a terrifying and prolonged, painful method of killing an animal and is condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Yet this man does it each year, with complete impunity. The Fish & Wildlife Department has taken no interest in these cases. Until we change the law, this reckless, inhumane and wasteful killing will continue. 

  Please write to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy’s  Committee assistant at [email protected] and ask them to support the two amendments submitted by Protect Our Wildlife listed above as it relates to wild animals causing damage.

If one of your Senators sits on this Committee, please be sure to let him know that you are his constituent.

This is Vermont’s chance to close a very dangerous loophole in the current statute. By doing so, countless animals’ lives may be saved.

 

Brenna Galdenzi is president of Protect Our Wildlife in Stowe, Vt.