Minnesota Trappers: legislative alert!

Minnesota trappers, it's time to get involved if you want to save meaningful trapping in Minnesota. There's two concerning bills, one is especially bad for us. SF1316/HF1299 is the really damaging one. Authors: senators Hoffman, Abeler, Dibble. House of Reps: Fischer

In a nutshell SF1316/HF1299:
1) Would require all bodygrip traps larger than a 110 to be completely submerged unless 5 feet off the ground or in a vertical box with the top up and at least 4 feet off the ground, and trap recessed at least 12" inside the box. (so no 1/2 submerged 330's). For fisher, marten, coon, and bobcat, it would make the boxes with the overhangs illegal.

2) Dog proofs:
a) pull triggers only
b) no meat or fish
c) must have a plug at least 1 1/2" inside the trap

3) Must contact a conservation officer within 24 hours if you catch a dog or collared animal. If the dog is dead, you will lose your trapping license for 5 years. Doesn't matter if it's on your own land or anywhere else.

4) Snares:
a) No kill locks. Must use a relaxing reverse bend washer style lock.
b) 7' max cable length
c) no entanglement bigger than 1/2" within reach of the snare. So basically no snaring in trees or brush

The second bad bill is HF945/SF855. Authors House of Reps (HF945) Fischer, Becker-Finn, Curran. Senate (SF855); Lucero
Would require permission (either written or verbal) to set or stake traps on any privately owned property. The reason this is concerning is you would need permission to stake a muskrat or beaver trap if the bottom is privately owned even if you entered the body of water from a public access. Would affect most waters in southern Minnesota. It would also likely require permission from the large privately owned properties like Potlatch, to set traps. Might be difficult. SF855 isn't an attack specifically on trapping, its a property rights bill but certainly would affect trapping.

We all need to contact our legislators and the authors of these bills. These bills are very serious for trappers. If passed, is a stepping stone for more laws next year and to eventually abolish recreational trapping. I encourage you to go to either "The Minnesota Trappers" or The Minnesota Trappers Association Facebook pages to get ideas on what to say in your emails and how to go about it.. Please be polite! Emails with rude or derogatory remarks are worse for us than no email at all. Our firewalls in the legislature have been severely depleted through retirement, death, or voted out. There's 60 new legislators this year, we know very little about any of them. And with the metro democrats basically controlling the entire state, every trapper, more than ever, needs to get involved. Email them at least once a week. Get your wife, kids, friends, whoever to email. Even if you just tell them to oppose the bills without elaborating, it helps. Always tell your own legislators you are a constituent and put your address under your name on the bottom. Put the bill number in the subject line.

Also, there's going to be a Trappers Day at the Capital on Monday, March 6. Please come down if you can make it. Details are on the Facebook pages and MTA website. If you're going to go, please P.M. me. You need to make appointments with your Senator and House member for that day. I or someone else with experience can go with you to the meetings if you want. No need to be intimidated, they want to hear from you..

Thank you Goldy for the info and heads up! Also, keep in mind that some of us old curmudgeons don't Facebook.

Thank you for the update goldy

Dave's appearance at the Capitol in a Speedo will no doubt draw some attention!

What's a plug in a dog proof?

Its so a dog cant put its tongue down the tube and spring the trap. Somebody caught a dog by the tongue ONE time in Minnesota and we have to battle to keep them now.

Sounds like an apparatus to make it nearly inoperable.

Not only that, it practically seals the scent of the bait from getting out.

I REALLY want to say a few things but the Boss would probably give me a vacation. That, and they are probably best left unsaid.

Under item 3, though, there are liable to be some really strange looking Coyotes caught.

We give and we give and we give. At what point do the dog owners need to give just a LITTLE too?

We've caught 1.5 million beaver in Minnesota since1995. We've killed ONE dog in a 330 in a freak accident and they want to make us fully submerge 330's.

They wittle away at it and one day we wake up to find we can no longer trap/hunt/fish/farm because we let it happen. We all sit back and think someone else will step on to prevent this from happening. Well it's time for all of us to get off our butts and speek up!!

In a State where a free roaming dog has more rights than an unborn baby! These Bills are Ridiculous and we need to Stop them.

Can somebody post links to these fools so the emails will start flowing Thanks

If anyone is interested here is a link to find out who represents you. Simply type in your address and it will produce a list of who is your legislators and their email addresses.

https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/iMaps/districts/

Here is a link to the house committee members and their email addresses who will decide if the bills get a floor vote

https://www.house.mn.gov/Committees/members/93008

Here is one for the Senate.

https://www.senate.mn/committees/committee_bio.html?cmte_id=3130&ls=93

IMHO, it will take a miracle for these bills NOT to make it out of committee and get a floor vote. If they don't make it out of committee is a real likelihood they will be amended and passed with another bill.

If anyone needs additional help finding out how to contact your legislators message Goldy or myself and we will gladly assist you.

You can also call and voice your opinions. If you don't want to talk to a live person you can call on Sunday and leave a message. You don't have to leave a lengthy message, just the basics but be clear and tell them what bills you are referring to. Whether you call or send an email you need to do this weekly!

Guy might think with that line of thinking they would be banning those new fangled killing machines called Otto-mobeels.

Osky

Not a popular opinion but dry land 220s in ROW and public land should of been given up years ago to stave off bad press and dog incidences, now we have to deal with nonsensical snare, conibear and dog proof restriction attempts.


I'll send emails today or tomorrow to committee members and my rep in opposition but I still dislike 220s in ROW particularly after I was training small English Cocker Spaniel on my farm and someone thought it was a great idea to put 220s in the ROW for Coon... If we could have adopted a slightly stricter conibear restrictions we could of pointed at that and said "no dog incidences have happened since the new regulation was adopted in 2018" for example. Even if this is defeated we need to revisit 220 regulations imo.

My nephew lost an expensive bird dog a few years ago to a 220. He let the dog out in the morning before going to work like he did every morning and one day the dog didn't come back when called. Found it over a half mile away on private land in a 220. Who's to blame? Personally I feel the dog owner is responsible but yet he is against any kind of trapping now. We don't need sportsman against sportsman as this works in favor of the opposition and need to work together. I understand and respect your opinion Donner but we have to stop giving in and stand our grounds or well will lose it all very soon.

Would he want to ban cars if his dog got hit on the road?

So don't hunt road row that abuts my private property because someone may throw 220s out there. I like row trapping and if someone traps my row with foothold and my dog hits it while we're out no problem, simple release.

When we lose row trapping because some guys insisted they should be able to throw dryland 220s in the row I'm really going to be upset.

At the time I had a shock collar on the spaniel and was training her not to go on the road on my farm. This was a young English cocker so probably 18 pound dog.

I hate to break it to you, but it's just a matter of time before you lose this battle.

Enjoy what you have while you can.

You guys are hung up on the conibear, the permission bill is just as bad

Absolutely and the DP part of the bill is just plain ridiculous Often wonder if a state can basically ban a product indiscriminately without any study or review of facts legally ?

Of course the state can, they are the state.

Heck the just outlawed fossil fuels for electricity generation by 2040.

You’re probably right comrade .

The whole debate about the ROW should be a moot point I suggest that all read the regs on this subject you have to have permission to trap in them as they are are not public land.Until I i hung up my conis I never had a problem trapping the row the only problems I had were with the hunters that thought that could just hunt the row and it was public for them to hunt. In no way should a dog owner think and in the fall that they can just go out and let their pet just run because its just a quick romp in the country. The dog owners know we are out there the dog hunters know we are out there whats not to understand people The rural landscape is not a dog park for them just to play in wake up..

Time to wake up. In MN dogs have more rights when it comes to hunting than we have. Hound hunters can go wherever they want to with no repercussions. Now they come on to my land and get hurt and I am responsible? A dead dog trespassing and you lose your lisc. for 5 years. It's only gonna get worse!

There is a lawsuit that will be heard this summer that may end hound retrieval laws, lawsuit is in Virginia but I suspect the result will be applied here as well.

https://www.drovers.com/news/indust...over-property-rights-v-hunting-tradition

SF855 would completely eliminate any legal hound retrieval in Minnesota

Pretty simple people who are against trapping and I’m sure hunting as well are using dogs as an excuse to get trapping banned. The fact that the number of dogs impacted by trapping is minuscule doesn’t matter.

So do you send the same email every week, or do you change the wording?

I would change it a little and mention I e- mailed previously but felt it was important to keep this important issue on their radar Something like that Guess the main thing is keep sending respectful e-mails.

If you go to the "The Minnesota Trappers" or Minnesota Trappers Association Facebook page, there's a post on ideas to include in your emails. We're working on getting them onto the MTA website, but there's a glitch. Hopefully getting it on there soon

Thanks

Though dog incidences are rare we should acknowledge they are pretty dramatic and if we can decrease or eliminate them we need to do that. We are one highly publicized incident away from being a cage trap state IMO, I feel the "Don't give an inch" strategy was not the correct one.

Will the DNR be consulted to have their opinion asked about this bill? If so who will consult from the DNR and has anyone talked to them yet?

Last April I emailed the DNR in regards to the number of dogs caught in traps and this was their response:

"The DNR has been keeping records of canine trap incidents as reported to conservation officers since 2012. As of February 2021, there were 35 reported incidents of canine mortality (28 in body-grip traps, 7 in snares and none in footholds). Although we record each incident reported, it’s very likely that many incidents go unreported.

The DNR has worked with trapping and hunting groups to reduce canine trap incidents. The agency continues to support a science-based approach that increases trap selectivity while still allowing opportunities to continue to safely use body-grip traps.

Thanks for your question,

Jason Abraham

Minnesota DNR"

One has to wonder how many of these dogs where strays, or hunting dogs that should not have been on that property. Then there is also the question of LO's giving permission for someone to hunt their properties without the consideration that they have already given permission for someone else to trap/snare. I realize there are two sides to every story but it seems the trappers always come out on the short end of the stick.

Those 35 dogs were over many years. I dont remember the exact amount of years, but it came out to like 3 per year. I've seen the incident reports on many of them. The VAST majority were free roaming dogs trespassing on private property. Some weren't even from trappers, but people trying to catch skunks or coons under their own buildings.

You would be hard pressed to find a greater proponent of trappers rights than Myself but baited 220s on the ground and accessible to hunting dogs is just plain stupid.

Hunting dogs were seldom being caught, none lately. The boxes have to have overhangs and the traps recessed inside the box now.

This is about us as trappers losing the ability to use our traps and having restrictions placed on them to the point which makes it impossible for us to use those traps Putting rules in place to take away our methods of trapping on render more trapping illegal.Are not we not going to try and protect what we have thats in place. Stop the infighting they that propose these bills are out to get us.Wake up all you that trap hunt and fish.

As stated of 2012 is when they started to keep records.



Fighting amongst ourselves is not helping our cause. I've joined several sportsman's clubs the past few years in order to help educate my fellow sportsman but finding a lot of resistance. Trying to point out to them that if trapping becomes regulated to the point of it no longer existing then other things such as 2nd amendment, hunting, fishing and even farming will soon follow as the tree huggers learn what techniques work and what doesn't work to eliminate what they feel is wrong. You don't have to join but ask if you can talk with them and get others to contact their representatives also and teil them not to vote for these bills. One vote is like a grain of sand but with enough votes you have a beach.

Anybody else receive a survey from the DNR related to these two topics? I got one yesterday. The survey seems skewed to make trappers incriminate themselves, somehow. I haven't set a trap in two years and have only trapped a few nuisance rats/beaver in the prior 3 years I trapped in MN. I'm not answering the survey for fear of accidentally answering a question in the opposite way I intended. The survey was definitely written by a room full of liewyers.

Got mine yesterday. Very tricky questions. Careful how you answer them but voice your opinion in the comments section.

The whole non-resident section
Is TOTALLY LOADED QUESTIONS!
Why wouldn't there be a question to allow non-resident trapping with no restrictions, but only offer questions with restrictions only!
As said above becareful how you answer. Or I will leave them blank.

I got a survey as well. This thing is 30 questions. Maybe we should all answer our questions the same

ttt

Just filled mine out. I had a few drinks first so if I checked the wrong box I can say it was the booze;

Also, there's going to be a Trappers Day at the Capital on Monday, March 6. Please come down if you can make it. Details are on the Facebook pages and MTA website. If you're going to go, please P.M. me. You need to make appointments with your Senator and House member for that day. I or someone else with experience can go with you to the meetings if you want. No need to be intimidated, they want to hear from you..


Guys, see if we can get more than the same crowd showing up for this. I know that it can be burdensome to attend, it's only 291 miles for me, I'd much rather go 100 miles north and see trapper les. It would be awesome if we could get a 100 or 2 trappers to show up. If anyone wants a ride let me know, I may have room

We need as many emails as possible, as soon as possible, to Senators Hoffman, Abeler, Dibble, Hawj, and Lucero. Also to Representatives Hansen, Fischer, Becker-Finn, and Curran.

Contact chief author Hoffman, and co-authors Abeler and Dibble on SF1316 (the bill to end meaningful trapping) Go to https://www.senate.mn/ for senate email addresses. Click on 2023 senate information

Contact Senator Lucero on SF855

Contact Senator Hawj on both SF1316 and SF855. He's the chairman of the Senate environmental committee. He has the power to stop the bills in the senate. Urge him to not hear the bills.

Contact State Representative Hansen on bills HF1299 (House anti-trapping bill) and HF945 (trespass bill) He's the chairman of the environmental committee. He has the power to stop the bills in the House. urge him to not hear the bills in his committee. Go to https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/ for the House of Reps emails. Click on member information

Contact chief author Representative Fischer on HF1299 and HF945

Contact Representatives Becker-Finn, and Curran on HF945

Always be polite. Never send rude or derogatory emails. If you need ideas on what to email, go to the MTA website, The Minnesota Trapper Facebook, or the MTA Facebook pages for "talking points" on those bills.

Carl,
This is also a back door attempt to make Mn. A cable restraint state, and BMP compliant, and protect wolf monies. There are reasons the BMP never tested killing snares. Mn will be the first state that had real snares, and the BMP standards would replace them if this passes. My guess is the ink is already dry. Mt.,ND, Ar., and Ia. Won’t be far behind.

Another mail in the coffin yesterday! https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/...ng-to-protect-minnesotas-threatened-lynx

I would urge all of you who trap on private land to ask your farmers and landowners to reach out to their rep and senate member. The politicians need to understand this impact is more than just the trappers. I reached out to abou t30 o fthe landowners where i trap and several have sent emails in opposition to the proposal

E mails sent.

After talking to a lot of Minnesota trappers recently, I'm alarmed at how many people haven't emailed their legislators. It is absolutely imperative that you and every family member does it if you want to continue using the tools we use and trap the places we can now.. If the bills go to a floor vote, your legislators need to know to oppose these bills. Don't rely on the others in the MTA to do all the work in defeating these bills! Its easy to do. There's links to the legislators in a post I did above. The bills in the senate are SF1316 and SF855. The bills in the House are HF1299 and HF945. Just tell them to oppose the bills. Include the bill numbers in the subject line. If you want to elaborate on why they're bad that's great. There's ideas on the MTA website and Facebook page..

Goldy, thanks for all your hard work on this. I emailed everyone that you listed. Any Minnesota trappers reading this, please take the time to call or email. Like Goldy said, don't think someone else will do it, the more responses that they get from Minnesota trappers the more they will reconsider their positions on these bills. I am 57 years old, heavily involved in trapping my entire life, and these bills are by far the WORST I have ever seen in the last 40 years. If passed, these bills will end trapping as we know it, in Minnesota.

Emails sent!!

Thank you to everyone who can make it tomorrow!

Randy, let me say thank you for all the work and time you have spent on these issues. I don't think most realize
Heck of a turnout I thought. Thanks to those who took the time and made the sacrifice to make the trip.

Let shoot for a goal of doubling it

And thank you Steve for all the help youve been. You even took a day off work and made the long trip down. Thank you also for going to some meetings and helping people out.

Not a problem Randy, it's what we do and who we are. Remember the first year we went down there all on our own,v i wonder what year that was? How many Town hall meetings, local county caucuses.

We still are trapping boys with meaningful tools because people like Randy make sacrifices. Randy won't toot his own horn but I will for him and won't hold back, I'm feeling a little sparky today lol. Randy does it on his own dime and his own time. I hate to think of how many times he had driven down to that cesspool this year alone making meetings. When I left yesterday after 3:30 he was going to try make more meetings or set up more. No excuses just does it

I think if we gave an award for furthest traveled Id have won every year, sure would like to get knocked off.

I'm almost positive I will be back at least one more time in the next couple of weeks at least. Anyone that wants to come.meet their legislators I or randy will help. I'm working on meeting a southern senator as well at his town. That one is only 6 hours away. Six hours I could be in Montana hunting with my buddy

Guys this crap is serious. Trapping issues are the tip of the w ice berg. They passed an abomination of an abortion bill, passed an energy bill that is going to at least double or triple current rates, and today numb nuts signed a bill to allow drivers license for all. They want to raise vehicle license by 60 percent and.tye.gun control proposals will blow the top off. We had 50 yesterday IMHO, no reason it can't be 100

Any how off my soap box for.now, good.luck fishing when you go randy you deserve a break. Send me a report

A big thanks to Randy and Steve and all the others who sacrificed their time and money to make a difference!

Good luck to You guys I hope You fair better than We did here in Maine.

TTT

Thank you, gentlemen, for all you do to keep trapping alive in Minnesota. I know it takes a lot of time and effort. You are much appreciated.

Ttt

Gentlemen and ladies, it appears that none of these bill got committee hearings, that means as a stand alone bill they would be very difficult to pass.

That doesn't mean those bills or parts of those bills cannot be amended to another bill and pass on that bill's back.

Now is the time it's really important to educate your legislators about our issues and hopefully they remember when it comes time to vote on said amendments. If it comes to that I expect we will lose in the house and will need a few democrats and all of the rebuplicans to be victorious.

Keep sending emails and getting your friends and family to email as well. It's simple and free.

Awesome, glad to see it fail. I still hope trappers may consider how to best proceed into the future which in my opinion would include limiting a few types of traps/snares in ROW and public land. Non elevated 220s being my main concern.

If anyone thinks that giving up 220s on land will make the bad bills stop I got bad news for you. It won't, this stuff will just keep coming, their goal is to end all trapping.

It will not stop bad bills, it will help dwindle support. Like I said previously, if we can give up a few things and point back to lets say 2023 trapping season as have 0 fatal pet incidences which has carried forward for the past 5 years it sets a precedent.

I don't think the "don't give an inch" is the best method to maintain effective trapping, that is my opinion.

I believe we not only " don't give an inch" but start taking back what is ours. We could start by throwing some resources at aggressively pushing leash laws and penalties. By any angle we can think of. Dangerous dogs, trespassing, animal welfare, etc. What if our resources aggressively lobbied the ag industry for partnerships. Start suing everyone that introduces stupid legislation. All the trappers have been doing is giving. Trappers are too nice.

"I don't think the "don't give an inch" is the best method to maintain effective trapping, that is my opinion"

We all know that having this mentality will be the start of the end, well nearly all know I guess.

Thank you to everyone that showed up at the capitol or wrote letters/email to get this stopped. It won't end here but we have to keep standing up to the nonsense.
I'm guessing a big part of their undoing on this was how over the top aggressive these proposals were.
Maybe we should take a lesson from that before "aggressively pushing leash laws." Let's not be blind to the fact that there legitimate reasons to have dogs/hounds off leash in the woods.

To get serious about finding reasonable workable solutions you need to shift the focus from the type of trap to the type of set it is used in. There is a heck of a big difference in where it is safe to set a 220 as a blind trail set vs when and where it is not safe to put a baited 220 cubby.

The problem with giving an inch is it isn't as easy as it seems. Maybe 10 years ago

The trappers are the ones to give ,EVERY time. The antis have nothing to give, all they want is to end us. Death by a 1000 cuts.

With Governor Goofy at the helm and the democrats owning the house and senate, they feel this is their big opportunity to get make trapping so restrictive most trappers will give it up. Same thing applies to firearms with the bills they're trying to push through.

I cannot stand the give an inch mentality, it never works and will be how we lose all rights. Never capitulate.

What are you more worried about in the north woods. A baited cubby or wolves eating your dog. If they were really worried about saving real numbers of dogs we would be shooting wolves on sight as well. Dogs don't mean a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) thing.

Doesn't every restriction make trapping less effective? By nature?
Every inch is an inch closer to the end. I would rather attack and go out with a bang than just bend over and go out with a whimper.

Absolutely it does, that is why we don't give in at all. I was in agreement with you.

Not sure if that was an honest question or just making a point, but I'll answer anyway. As a bobcat trapper, who also runs snowshoe hare with beagles, I'd say the danger is about equal. Although a wolf attack can happen anytime, and baited cubby sets tend to be limited to cat season in these parts, so can more easily be avoided. That said, I wasn't thrilled with the last compromise that moved cat season to run through most of January.

Lets step into the reality of the situation for a second.

Democrats, many who are not trapping friendly control MN
A dog death is a huge emotionally charged issue. A dead dog in a a 220 or snare in a ROW or on Public land is a major problem.
Outdoorsmen are a minority of the population in this state.
Trappers are a tiny minority of Outdoorsmen.
Trapping is not economically or socially important to 99+% of the states population.

As trappers we need all the support we can get, bird hunters, small game hunters, should be natural allies. In many cases those who hunt with dogs are not allies of trappers because of the threat to the dogs. Dogs are often considered part of the family, there is extreme emotional attachment to dogs. Economically most people likely have 10x more invested into their dog than the average trapper makes on a yearly fur check.

It may sound good to say "don't give an inch" and "go on the offensive" but if you go on the offensive you will be running into a machine gun nest. If you don't give an inch you may be bombed out of your position with nothing to fall back to.

I don't think we should give up any tools on Private land. Private land and the ability to use a full arsenal of tools should be highly protected. We should also strive towards 0 dog deaths on both Private and Public land. On Private that can be done by being cautious and smart. On Public that may mean limiting a couple traps to reduce conflicts.

I may be wrong, maybe giving up a couple tools on Public land is a bad idea and lead to a slippery slope, I don't think I am but I may be. However think its far more likely we lose massive ground in trapping because someone will have pictures or videos of their dog in a snare or coni which will result in a legislative or massive ballot measure loss of trapping, including footholds.

Donner, I can see your point, but I have to disagree. We have given so many inches in the last 30 years that I think it could be measured in miles.

Something to keep in mind with Easter break coming up I expect there will be town hall meetings in different constituencies. Take a look at your legislators FB page to see if they may have one upcoming and attend. A key senator that is a newly elected and was an unknown, he held a town hall meeting a week ago, we were able to get quite a group there to have a discussion with him and educate him to our issues. The meeting went well and I'm encouraged he will back us.

Don't leave the work for others, get engaged. Randy will not have much free time shortly.