Additional Legal Challenge Brought to Ban Trapping in Minnesota
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Additional Legal Challenge Brought to Ban Trapping in Minnesota





A California-based animal rights group has brought a lawsuit to eliminate trapping in Minnesota and establish a precedent that would threaten hunting, fishing and trapping nationwide. The new complaint is strikingly similar to an existing suit that would ban trapping to eliminate incidental take of endangered species.

On Sept. 20, the Animal Protection Institute (API) filed a federal lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The case centers around Canada lynx, bald eagles and gray wolves, which are federally protected species. The API claims that because these animals could be caught in a trap, trapping should be prohibited.

The API suit is in line with a suit recently brought by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and a smaller animal rights group against the DNR. Similarly, they claim that since Minnesota holds a population of Canada lynx, a species protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), all trapping should be stopped to prevent incidental catch of lynx. There is no data proving that this has been a problem.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF) and its Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund are reviewing the API suit to determine an appropriate course of action. The SLDF, the nation’s only litigation force that exclusively represents sportsmen’s interests in court, filed on Sept. 6 to join the suit brought by HSUS on sportsmen’s behalf.

“These suits are backdoor attempts by anti’s to achieve a political agenda; they have nothing to do with wildlife conservation,” said USSAF Senior Vice President Rick Story.

These cases could set precedents that would affect how the ESA can be applied throughout the nation. If trapping can be stopped to prevent the occasional catching of lynx in Minnesota, will fishing be banned in the Mississippi River, Great Lakes or other bodies of water that hold endangered sturgeon?

Animal rights groups previously used the Endangered Species Act to force the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to suspend trapping with snares. The state’s coyote snaring program is still in limbo as state wildlife officials attempt to obtain incidental take permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the state if any listed species are inadvertently injured or killed in a snare.

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