Monday, April 16, 2012
"The Troubles with Trapping" New Mexican Road Show

TrapFreeNM.org to Start 8-City Tour to Inform Citizens about Trapping's Flaws
Contact: Wendy Keefover (505) 988-9162 x1162

Additional contact:   Mary Katherine Ray, Sierra Club, phone  575.772.5655

Santa Fe.  The TrapFreeNM.org will start its eight-city tour of New Mexico to highlight the dangers associated with public lands trapping on April 16, and to meet New Mexico’s citizens and voters face-to-face in order to elevate the issue, raise awareness, and capture the attention of decision makers.

“Traps on New Mexico’s public lands are a hidden source of danger to humans and their animal companions and the practice of trapping contributes to the harm and death of untold numbers of wildlife,” said Wendy Keefover, Director of Carnivore Protection for WildEarth Guardians. “The only animal Game and Fish counts are bobcats because of international law. Between 2000 and 2011, trappers culled almost 25,000 bobcats. The numbers of swift foxes, kit foxes, coyotes, and all other species go uncounted and their populations unmonitored,” she added.

Despite a multi-year effort to curb trapping on public lands, including the TrapFreeNM Coalition’s 2011 request to ban traps, which was echoed by 12,000 emails, petitions, and letters, last year the New Mexico Game Commission expanded trapping in areas that had been prohibited to trapping, and it even lifted the trap ban in the range of the Mexican wolf.

“The lobo is one of the most endangered animals on the planet, yet the Game Commission decided to lift the trap ban to allow indiscriminate trapping in its habitat,” Keefover emphasized, “despite numerous previous mortalities and injuries from this practice.”

“We are going on the road to speak to the majority of all New Mexican voters, who we know want traps banned from public lands, and these meetings give us an opportunity to meet with those voters and all New Mexico citizens face-to-face,” said Mary Katherine Ray of the Sierra Club.

Schedule:

• April 16, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  New Mexico State University
  Library Room
  1500 N Third Street
  Grants, NM 87020

• April 17, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  San Juan College
  Information Technology Room 7103
  4601 College Boulevard
  Farmington, NM 87402

• April 18, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  Northern New Mexico College
  Administration Building rooms 101-102
  921 Paseo de Onate
  Española, NM 87532

• April 19, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  Coronado Hall, El Alcalde Room
  120 Civic Plaza Drive
  Taos, NM 87571

• April 22, Campus Earth Day Event
  Eastern New Mexico University
  1500 S Avenue K
  Portales, NM 88103

• April 23, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  Roswell Public Library
  Bondurant Room B
  301 N Pennsylvannia Boulevard
  Roswell, NM 88201

• April 24, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
  Community Events Room
  3845 North Swan Street
  Silver City, NM 88062

• April 25, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
  University of New Mexico Valencia Campus
  280 La Entrada Road
  Los Lunas, NM 87031

All events are free and are open to the public.

The TrapFreeNM.org Coaltion is comprised of WildEarth Guardians, Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, Animal Protection of New Mexico, and Born Free USA.