Hello all,has anyone else recieved an e-mail from Michigan State U asking to conduct a survey on trapping?It is being conducted by Jessica Rizzolo at MSU Dept. of Fisheries and Wiildlife div.Has questions concerning" illegal fur harvesting do to discussions with trappers." Have not taken survey yet for fears of possible anti trapping agendas?Anyone else have insite?

I just Googled this researcher.......based on what I read, in my opinion, she doesn't seem to be anyone I'd trust to be all in for the wise use of our furbearer resource.

Thanks J I had my reservations as well so I think I'll skip my reply.If it were a Mi.DNR furbearer survey I probably would such as we get them at the end of seasons,However we Michiganders all know our DNR services are not currently available,can't even register last springs otter catches yet.

I dont dare comment much on this but I would suggest NOT participating

No email here.... yet

I received an email and did their survey just to see what it was about. It was about how likely you felt fellow trappers follow the laws while trapping the limited species( bobcat, otter, marten, and fisher). How likely it was for a trapper to hide a harvest of a poor quality animal in order to get a better one to tag. Also how much you trust the DNR regulations and how well you think they are managing the resources.

No email here

I got one. Prob won’t respond after the posts here.

After searching her:

Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Research Associate – Gore Lab
Jessica is a conservation social scientist who holds a dual PhD in Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy from Michigan State University. Her research interests include wildlife crime, wildlife tourism, wildlife consumption, and the integration of animal welfare and conservation. She is particularly focused on China and Southeast Asia, the issues affecting captive and wild elephants and big cats, and the integration of critical criminology and situational crime prevention. Her current research spans fur-bearer poaching in Michigan, wildlife guardianship in Vietnam, the conservation impacts of novel forms of wildlife tourism such as selfie safaris, and the effects of wildlife farms on the acceptability of consumption of tigers, bears, turtles, and snakes in China.

I answered what I wanted to and emailed her a number of questions. Expressed my distaste for the obvious bias against trapping. Forwarded the survey to my contact at the DNR who regularly deals with anti trapping wonks. I doubt she'll respond. She is looking to validate her Ill will towards what we do. Only thing missing was the " have you stopped killing kittens? Question. Going to blow back on the dnr for furnishing our email addresses and let them know that because of this I will reference this as to why I'm no longer filling out any more surveys.

we had them at a show couple years ago , they didn't tell me the truth about what they where going to ask , I believe they are against trapping , the question they ask try to put one trapper against another , jmo

Some chatter about this on MTPCA Facebook page, someone contacted MDNR furbearer manager Adam Bump. It seems the survey is legit. But in no way does it make one feel warm and fuzzy with the questions I seen. I see no biological resource benefit to those type of questions, I won't participate. Sooner or later it will come back to bite us trappers.

That would be an extremely subjective type survey on all ends from my perspective. Who responds and with what and how it is tabulated and released. Not much to really gain from any scientific aspect at all and even the social aspect has no real accountability aspect to it either. Hard to believe anything of any real value to improve trapping, trappers or the experience could possibly come from this. I don't know the nature of the other questions that may not be related to the topic discussed here. If a more complete survey with other types of questions one can leave the more subjective ones blank.

Bryce