S 5423 Allows Counties to Ban Trapping [2009]

Bill Description: If this bill passes, county governments would be allowed to restrict or even prohibit trapping within county limits.
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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 S 5423 is a significant step in that direction.