Anti Trapping legislation in Kentucky

Bill Request 492 seeking to ban the use of ALL body grip traps in KY.All you Ky guys start getting the word out and contact your legislators.The antis are starting to get a toe hold in our state government

Did KY elect a Democrat Governor?

yes

I think this is the sign of the time IF you elect a Democrat as Gov. JMO

All the other Rs won in Ky. Bevan stepped on the toes of the teacher unions trying to fix the pension issue and got swatted.

Which one of the numb nuts put forth the bill?

Julie Adams,republican from Jefferson co,

Somebody should just flush that whole liberal mess of a county into the ohio and be done with it.

Donnie, thanks for posting this, I'll contact my State Rep and State Senator.

I agree with rex123. Unfortunately we have an outdoorsmen group here in KY that is as anti-trapping as the animal rights crowd. They are a constant thorn in the side of intelligent, scientific equipment and regulations that make wildlife management better for EVERYONE, not just trappers. These folk are about their interest and have used the current "critters are cuddly" tactic to put the kibosh on regulation changes that would help trappers and in turn would increase the usability and satisfaction of other outdoor enthusiasts. I haven't confirmation on my suspicions but it does fit this groups M.O. We as trappers in this state need to be cautious and intelligent about the image we put forth to the public and on public forums, like this fine establishment. We don't need pictures or quotes that can be used to misrepresent us to the uneducated or ill-informed public. What trappers consider part of the job sometimes can be misconstrued by others who don't know, especially when the narrative is being controlled by anti's. Example: what does dancing look like to a deaf person. As folks get farther removed from how things really work, i.e., butchering their own meat, removing unwanted pests, etc., our jobs as wildlife managers takes on the extra aspect as educators to the uneducated. The days of even farmers understanding about carrying capacity application applies to wildlife as well as livestock, is coming to an end. Everyone has grown up with the "Disney" mentality for so long, its the norm and has penetrated all walks of life. We have the responsibility of being our own champion or our own executioner. Hope everyone has dry dirt, tight chains, and not enough stretchers. Thanks.

Yes sir this group is responsible

I’m unable to determine if the intent is not for all manufactured traps and not just bodygrips, we have been trying to contact the lady that pre filed it with no return reply so far. She did not come up with this on her own. Someone is involved that doesn’t want their name on it in my opinion. It is sad when one or two people try to do an end run around the KDFWR after basically ignoring their suggestion to help trappers and landowners. This is happening in other areas of wildlife management in our state, crossbow hunting, hunter education not just trapping, but in this case it is as stated above. This has been slowly festering for several years up there. With these tactics the professional wildlife managers, KDFWR, and the KDFWR Commission are ever so slowly being rendered irrelevant. Some good wildlife management people are leaving. We’re on the cusp, if something doesn’t turn around, of seeing ALL wildlife management as we’ve known it be run by the tourism cabinet. I wonder if other states have seen similar? The other group, and I say group but it’s really just a handful that’s the problem, is certainly not beloved by the antis and they’re introducing tactics that will bite them in 10 years or so when other players enter the picture. They are very short sighted, self serving individuals.
There is quite a bit of talk about doing something about night time trespassing already. Lots of landowners and deer leases are sick of it. They should be concerned with their own public image instead of ours. I’m as conservative as you can get but one thing I’ve learned in the last few years that not everyone with an ‘R’ is necessarily a good honest person. Oddly, I’m hoping the New Democrat governor will make some needed changes up there. We’ll see. It could go from bad to worse. There’s some slimy goings on in Kentucky politics.

https://legislature.ky.gov/Pages/index.aspx Here is the link to look up your legislator in your county

It reads like they are trying to do away with ALL manufactured traps. Sounds a little like a guy who has a radio show here was in on this?

It is cosponsored by Derek Lewis from south eastern ky.

Sorry last post on this but the sponsor of this doesn't sit on or have anything to do with anything connected to wildlife or ag. groups. She is banking, insurance and the like so where did the idea for this bill come from?

We still get to vote it’s just the choices we have are no longer our “kind” or of like mindedness. We are slowly losing our freedoms in this state and country. If we don’t tap the local state reps in our area first before this session starts (January) they are likely to sandwich that in between 5000 pages of crap no one sees and then bam it’s done.
I fought and emailed over the wildlife commission and all the corruption that has puked out of there to find out that the politics rules and we better lean on the politicians pretty hard or they will vote by who is paying or pressuring them. I sure hope our fish and wildlife will get behind defeating this bill and not fold because of a few anti and the out of state deer lessors that think they should run our states game laws so we don’t interrupt their deer hunts.

I hope my fellow KY trappers are being diligent about contacting their state senators and representatives about this issue. Far too many states has lost equipment usage and rights altogether to rest on the old adage "it can't happen here". Our state is not immune to the influx of non-rural and liberal people who have moved from states that have multiple large cities and are less agricultural than KY. In my own experience there has been an increase of urbanite folk who have moved to our state looking for "Mayberry". Unfortunately they bring with them the ideas and misconstrued attitudes toward farming and animals, basically they have little to no clue about how things actually work. These are the kind of people that push the AR agenda and try to rationalize ALL animals are like the alpacas they're raising in a two acre pen. Even the alpacas don't always fit their dialogue. Some of my fellow Kentuckians live by the misbelief that all is well in our state because "old Bob" down the road is a good ole boy and he'd never vote against trapping. The "old Bob" 's of this world are dying off and are being replaced by urban oriented "Robert", who has been educated in an atmosphere that doesn't include hunting and trapping and isn't real keen on knowing the where, how, and why of what he consumes. Complaining about an issue without action never accomplishes anything for the complainer, it only serves those who we're complaining about. Please contact your state senator and representative and let them know that bill request 492 isn't serving the state of KY for the best. There's just too much for us to lose to gamble on inaction.

Is it the KY Houndsmen behind this bill?

Yep

I believe a past president of them is the main character. He’s kind of like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson in that he has to keep trouble stirred up for his own self relevance. He has a personal vendetta that the entire group is not in favor of but he’s where he can cause trouble now. He has proven he has absolutely no problem lying in the past. I believe he will be his own undoing.

It is a sad day for us all when people start paying attention to fools.Don't they understand after us they are next?

Coyotes and beaver are your best friends. Farmers, ranchers, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle. Get these folks calling. Even pet owners who lost pets to coyotes.
USDA Wildlife Services can't politic but can give out research information, USDA Ag,

Beaver, timber companies, Soil and water, private timber growers, DOT flooded roads, fields, houses.

You won't have but a handful of trappers, but with these folks you will have hundreds. Most big timber co have their own lobbyist as does many farm and ranching groups.

We went through the same thing several years ago and won. The houndsmen lobbyist even brought in the head of the Humane Society to speak against trapping.

When it directly effects a persons wallet they get interested

Disease, rabies, distemper, rodent population explosions, human attacks.

Protecting other wildlife populations, songbirds, Low ground and ground nesting birds, saving protected habitat, mitigation sites, ground water, runoff, flood control, Fish migrations affected by beaver dams.

Farmers, certified crops, can't have but so much animal waste in a field, crop damage from coons, coyotes, fox, groundhogs, etc.

Let other groups do your work

It's been several years ago now, but my son was a youngster attending the Hunter Safety Course here in Kentucky. I went along, of course. I hadn't been myself in almost three decades, so I was curious as to how it was handled. To my surprise, they even had a trapping segment. I thought it was strange how a particular gentleman that was not one of the volunteer instructors, had a discussion with the one preparing to talk about trapping. This fellow then had a seat at the front of the room. The volunteer began to talk about trapping, and painted a horrible picture of the sport, talking in vivid detail how a Conibear works, what raccoons sometimes do in a foothold, how every animal including coyotes, foxes, and even bobcats will chew (which is an outright lie), and that if you're going to engage in such an endeavor, then you should check your traps 6 or 7 times per day. There was more, but that was the gist of it. I'll never forgive myself for not speaking up at that moment, but I was furious, and was afraid if I lost my temper in front of everyone the discussion would get uncivilized quick, and I would do more harm than good. I kept looking at the horrified looks of the children and the parents in the room, and it was like a bad dream. After he was finished speaking, the man that was seated at the front of the room, got up, shook the instructors' hands, and left. I found out later he was a representative from the KY Houndsmen. I called United Trappers of Kentucky immediately following that class, and they went to work, and I was fielding calls from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources that next week, who wanted names and details, and who supposedly conducted their own investigation. I was even called at a later date by the head of the Hunting Education training department, an avid trapper, to make sure I was satisfied. I was told the instructors were reprimanded and re-educated, but I'll never know if anything at all ever happened. I've also thought a lot over the years about how many kids' minds were poisoned against our way of life before and after that time. With this proposed legislation I can see now that this plan has been in the works for many years.

Does anyone know how long we have before this goes up for a vote? If this passes, I believe also it is definitely worded where it can be applied to footholds as well. We will become the great cage trapping state of Kentucky.

It blows my mind how ignorant an outdoors group can be to not realize they are in bed with the enemy, and that they are being used as a means to an end. The Anti's will not stop until they have every form of hunting stopped.

Here's a little gem for you to ruminate on. Taken straight from the Kentucky Houndsmen Associations Facebook page, October 29, 2019:" Good news!! The proposal to extend the trapping season for furbearers into the month of March has been pulled. This means that although it was PASSED by the KDFW Commissioners, it will not be sent on to the State Rep. Outdoors Committee. I can only assume that they didn't think it would have enough support to be passed out of the Outdoors Committee with their approval. Thank you to the men that attended the Commission meetings in opposition to this proposal, your help and support is much appreciated. UNITED WE STAND, Doug Johnson, President, KY Houndsmen Association."
The extended season was approved for this past March in leu of an extremely rainy winter here. Many landowners, some unable to access parts of their land especially in Western KY, were and are dependent on trappers to remove problem beaver that have flooded farm lanes and fields. Many problem beaver were removed by various trappers, including the United Trappers of KY Beaver Brigade. There were a lot of happy landowners this past spring due to ability of KY trappers solving wildlife problems with equipment that has scientific research support. On the other hand from the KY houndsmen Association website:" WORKING ON YOUR BEHALF" "Houndsmen are the backbone of the hunting industry which is the mainstay of KY economics." Funny considering this group constantly opposes any regulation change that would benefit not only landowners, the general public, but also their selves. From the president: "My philosophy: Work hard to improve the rich heritage we have now, work harder to preserve it for the generations to come and always be a positive influence." Hard to justify being a positive influence when you're working against the farmers that feed everyone. This organization only proves it is self serving and is not for sportsmen, outdoorsmen, or anyone that isn't houndsmen. Your talk talks but your walk talks louder.

Well it sounds like the new and old president are of the same material. I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt but he did a 180 after our meeting on the March extension. He agreed with the KDFWR’s suggested extension and everyone left the room thinking that it was a done deal. I believe he was reigned in by the other one. The truth of the matter is that we Trappers requested it be pulled because we did not like the watered down division they had weaseled out. We would not agree that bodygrips are ok in March but footholds and snares weren’t . It may take a few more seasons but this will come back up again when beaver explode. As for the ones that showed up at the commission meeting and stood up straight faced and stated they had treed a sow coon with five kittens in March and that March was the ONLY month they ran their dogs anyone with any common sense can be the judge of that. It is very disheartening trying to work with dishonest people and try to figure out the political angle of simple wildlife management. The whole political angle may be exposed before long to all Kentucky Sportsmen and women.

To all of you that have helped on this Thank You. If several of you all across the country have few words to say about how important and necessary for wildlife management traps “ with springs” are it’d be good for her to hear it. She did not come up with this on her own. She is being coached. I believe if she were inundated with emails she may do a little thinking about it. So far she has not replied to our request to discuss it. Here’s her contact info.

https://legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/Pages/Legislator-Profile.aspx?DistrictNumber=136

Here's a little gem for you to ruminate on. Taken straight from the Kentucky Houndsmen Associations Facebook page, October 29, 2019:" Good news!! The proposal to extend the trapping season for furbearers into the month of March has been pulled


This shows you how untruthful they are. The proposal was for water sets only. Not all furbearers. We also discussed at the sit down with them and KDFWR an extended check for lethal water sets similar to neighboring Tennessee, which they did not have much of a problem with. Well, before you know it they were telling their membership we were wanting a three day check for all land sets. The guys that showed up at the commission had bought into that lie because the big cheese said so. How do You deal with people like that? There’s just a handful of bad eggs in their leadership. I believe many hound hunters don’t know how they are. I do know some do though. I’ve had discussions with a few of them that are reasonable and they’ve given me a heads up on what they’re up to.

Thanks to you Steve. KY trappers owe a lot to guys like Chet and you. Most good things are accomplished by folks behind the scenes, working their tails off, that others never hear or know about. Every end of the season barn picture and every fur check, you guys play an important part. Without the sacrifice of personal time and energy a lot of KY men, women, boys , and girls wouldn't get to enjoy some of the great trapping experiences we have here in KY. We still have some antiquated regulations here, but through your efforts we have left many behind us. Most of the ones left, to my understanding are the result of political compensation and posturing, not actual wildlife management related. Lets hope this current situation can be an inspiration for other trappers in KY to pick up their own cause and get these regulations changed for the betterment of trappers in our state. Again thank you for all you've done for trappers in KY. We're the better for people like you.

https://www.sportsmensalliance.org/news/kentucky-legislator-targets-trapping/

Thank you to all that have taken a few minutes to help us on this. She, as far as I know, has replied to no one on this. If you can find time before Jan. 5 to voice your support we’d appreciate it.

Even though I am not currently a resident, I did just send Julie Adams an e-mail asking her to get correct info before proposing a bill, as she was definitely misled on this topic.

Zookeeper

Thank you sir. She was definitely fed untrue and misleading information. She probably knows that by now with everyone’s help on this.

I think this is sponsored and co-sponsored by republicans. It doesn't matter if they are democrats, republicans or independents; if they are opposed to trapping, they are opposing our rights.
Please contact your legislators!

is bill 492 just about body grips or all traps

It is poorly, loosely worded and could certainly be interpreted as all traps. The wordage is largely copied from anti web propaganda because the guy that came up with it is really ignorant about trapping. The homegrown antis attempted to divide and conquer on the March season by separating bodygrips and footholds as being “ acceptable”. We were trying to help farmers, landowners and county road officials with problem beaver by asking to extend it a month. When they attempted to limit our traps We said forget it and asked it be pulled. There is no more of a “problem” with footholds in an extended March water trapping only season than there is during the regular season going on right now. We will not allow them to start picking our equipment apart. Ive seen this in other states. Death by a thousand cuts.

yes it is hard to understand by the wording

Thanks to everyone. Something may happen next week and I’ll let everyone know.

Great news! She pulled the bill today. Thanks to all that helped

That's awesome!!! So, that's it for this round? Do you feel like they were just testing the waters and a new amended one will be forthcoming? I know personally I'm not okay giving up anymore ground but they always chip away slowly, starting with the usage of conibears on public land.