AB 5381 Allows Counties to Ban Trapping [2009]

Bill Description: If this bill passes, county governments would be allowed to restrict or even prohibit trapping on county property. Also, this bill would require counties to post warning signs on county owned property (if it is accessible to the public) where trapping is allowed.
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County governments are currently prohibited from restricting traps, even if they deem that body-crushing traps pose an unacceptable hazard to family pets and children. There has been a whole string of incidents in New York; the latest occurred in June 2008 in Newburgh, when a dog was caught in a steel-jaw leghold trap before being released. The trap was on private property, within a hundred feet of roughly ten dwellings, in a Historical District on Grand Street, a residential section of the city where many children and pets live. The dog survived but may suffer nerve damage as a result. An even more tragic incident occurred 2-1/2 years ago, when a beloved, 3-year-old mixed breed dog named Zephyr was crushed and killed by the jaws of a steel animal trap while hiking with his owner in a local nature preserve in Southampton. The time is long overdue to help ensure that other family pets and wildlife don’t befall the same tragic fate as Zephyr and AB 5381 is a significant step in that direction.