PETITION TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
We, the undersigned, call on the U.S. Department of the Interior to ban the use of cruel and unnecessary body gripping traps — snares, Conibear traps, or steel-jaw leghold traps — on public lands, including national parks, national preserves, and national wildlife refuges.
Instead of areas of safety, these sacred places have been transformed into killing fields. Each year, millions of animals who call these public lands home languish in cruel traps for hours, and even days, before they are brutally killed. Even iconic North American species such as bald eagles, black bears, grey wolves, bobcats, and other sensitive species, have been found in leghold traps and snares. Traps are indiscriminate, and present danger to people, pets, and wildlife.
The U.S. Department of the Interior and the corresponding agencies should immediately and publicly announce their support for ending cruel and unnecessary trapping on public lands, starting with the National Wildlife Refuge System.
