Update: Thankfully, this bill failed. Please stay tuned as this may be introduced again in the future.
Bill Description: If passed, this bill would initiate a trapping season on river otters and bobcats.
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Steel-jawed leghold traps and Conibear traps are cruel, arbitrary, and antiquated. These devices cause enormous suffering as the animals they capture may die slowly of dehydration, starvation, or predation from other animals if the trapper fails to check the trap soon after the animal stumbles into it. These traps are not species-selective. Instead, they are an indiscriminate killing method that sometimes catches and kills non-target animals. Effective alternatives to the use of steel-jawed leghold traps and Conibear traps exist. Instead of expanding trapping, these alternatives should be utilized in the state of Illinois. Domestic animals can become victims of traps. Veterinary reports tell how caregivers have found their dogs and cats alive in these traps after suffering for days, but because the humans were unable to open the trap jaws, they could not free their companions in time. As with many wild species, river otter and bobcat populations are naturally regulated by available food and habitat. Lethal control, however, can cause more otters and bobcats to reproduce, and encourages larger litter sizes because of decreased competition for food and habitat. As a result, killing these animals may actually be ineffective as it may cause an increase in the number of otters and bobcats.