MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
Amend the environmental conservation law to permit the use of live restraint cable devices to take coyotes.
The NYSCC supports amending the ECL to authorize the use of live restraint devices for trapping. Non-powered cable restraints hold captured animals alive and with few, if any, significant injuries. This allows them to be safely used in locations where other types of traps would pose a risk to non-target animals and pets.
These traps have been designed for humane capture of wildlife while minimizing injury to the animal. We believe that these devices address the concerns for animal welfare that frequently arise over trapping issues. They have been tested by many state and federal agencies and are currently allowed in 38 states and most Canadian provinces as well as in areas under federal jurisdiction. It is the method used by researchers to capture coyotes to be fitted with tracking collars.
The proposed use of cable restraints is supported by “The Best Management Practices for Trapping,” which was produced by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in one of the most ambitious research projects in the history of the conservation movement. Data collected during the BMP project recognizes properly used cable restraints as an appropriate tool for the safe, selective and practical capture of fur-bearers and problem animals, specifically eastern coyotes.
This is the preferred method for trapping coyotes in developed areas both because of the restraints’ effectiveness as well as their ability to avoid injury to domestic animals. The use of loop stops and breakaway devices can improve selectivity; and if an undesired animal or a domestic pet were accidentally captured, it can be easily released with little or no injury.