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Trapping bill highlights state’s urban-rural divide

Excerpt from Santa Fe New Mexican, 2/7/2019

Mary Katherine Ray has seen traps up close.

One caught the leg of her dog Greta while they were hiking.

“I will never forget the sound of Greta’s screaming,” Ray told a New Mexico legislative committee on Thursday.

It was a story lawmakers heard over and over again — a story of beautiful days outdoors turned bloody by traps lurking in the brush.

Animal welfare advocates and others are renewing a yearslong effort to ban trapping on New Mexico public lands. And with House Bill 366, lawmakers are reigniting a visceral debate over the humane treatment of animals and deep-rooted traditions.

Critics argue that banning trapping on public land would not stop the sort of illegal trapping that usually spurs outrage. In turn, ranchers say banning the practice would amount to one more blow to a way of life many of them already view as under threat.

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Featured image from Santa Fe New Mexican

Trapping bill highlights state’s urban-rural divide