Lynx Lawsuit News Story

Updated: December 04, 2019 11:03 AM

An environmental group has put the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on notice that it plans to sue the agency for failing to protect Canada lynx from trappers.

The Center for Biological Diversity says it's ready to sue, saying the state has failed to comply with a 2008 court order that's meant to protect lynx from being caught by trappers seeking other species.

The group says state and federal agencies have documented captures of 16 lynx over the past decade in traps that were set for other species in Minnesota, including six that resulted in deaths of the rare cats.

“It’s outrageous that Minnesota’s lynx keep needlessly suffering and dying in indiscriminate traps,” Collette Adkins, the center’s carnivore conservation director, said in a statement. “The state needs to step up and implement sensible changes to prevent the tragic deaths of these highly imperiled cats. Minnesota’s rare animals shouldn’t be strangled in neck snares.”

Canada lynx are listed as threatened and are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is estimated that as few as 50 of the cats remain in Minnesota.

The Center for Biological Diversity said it would seek more measures to protect Canada lynx, such as making it mandatory to place traps within "lynx exclusion devices" that prevent trapping deaths.

If there are only 50 in the State then you Minnesota guys are doing well to catch 16 of them.

Zim

How many are killed by cars in that same decade.

I wonder if they could explain what constitutes a "lynx exclusion device"? Do they think you could pick one up at Walmart or order one from Amazon?

They should be suing Canada for allowing the Lynx to cross the border, that would make more sense.

Maybe in the future they could put up a sign telling the lynx not to cross the border. That would make it harder to sue Canada, though.

Sounds like an invasive species.

What, the lynx or the environmental organization?

Is it bad that anytime someone uses over the top words like "outrageous". I want to punch them in the teeth?

Build a wall and deport them back to Canada.

Dam Canadians!

All for that one!
50 my hind end.

Carnivore conservation director. She’s got to be pretty darn important, and probably not too cute.

Osky

Six killed since 2008? In eleven years? That seems like an acceptable rate to me. There were probably that many killed by trains.

Thinking of this.. there are lynx tracks across the lake here, didn’t think to get a pic. There have been a pair that the snowmobile groomer has seen about 12 miles north of here the last couple years so I don’t trap up there. Remember Jim wallner used to post live lynx pics when he was here.
So by some miracle I am privy to 8 percent of the lynx population in Minnesota??
You have to feel for our DNR on this one, what are they supposed to do?
What if anything will this lawsuit defense cost us sportsman and taxpayers?

Osky

And how about all the kittens killed by raptors?

Osky

Idaho went thru this a few years back. It'll all depend on the State's Incidental Take Statement (ITS) that is issued from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The State will have to have one in order to permit an activity (trapping) that may lead to the incidental "take" of the animal. The ITS has a number tied to it and "take" is rather broadly defined by the Endangered Species Act. Even though the animal is released unharmed it is still considered take for the purposes of the Act and ITS.

It would be a common sense and reasonable thing if the ESA recognized that species have a range and near the edge of their respective range, populations tend to get thin. Why are we “protecting” lynx when they were, in all likelihood, only a transient species in the lower 48?

Some people need to learn the merits of SSS to protect existing trapping rights.

Nope, you gotta build your own.




Lucky to get 20% of the fishers to go in.

That's a nice little shed.
Is that your fur shed?