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Did You Know?
- Every year, steel leghold traps, body-crushing traps, and foot and neck snares are hidden throughout New Mexico's public lands by trappers hoping to kill thousands of wild animals and make money from furs.
- Trapping is the only state-sanctioned activity that allows private individuals to kill unlimited numbers of wildlife—almost 10,000 a year in New Mexico—and sell their parts for private commercial profit.
- Some state agencies and counties spend federal, state & local tax dollars to contract with federal wildlife agents to kill many thousands of wild animals with M-44 "cyanide bombs" and other poisons on public lands.
New Mexico tourists and residents enjoy the great outdoors on our public lands with their children, friends, and companion animals. The last thing they want to see is their child injured, or their dog or a beautiful wild animal cruelly caught—or killed—in dangerous, archaic traps.
And with climate change making the future of New Mexico's wild habitat and water uncertain, unlimited taking of wildlife to be sold in commercial markets has the potential to devastate our ecosystem in the coming years.
Send your important message to your state legislators today.
**IMPORTANT** A very brief draft message has been prepared for you, but legislators notice when they receive identical emails from constituents—so please revise the message and put it in your own unique words.
Here are some ideas for talking points—choose one or two that resonate most with you:
- Introduce who you are: Start with saying where you're from; any connections to rural or traditional communities; your role as a leader, business owner, parent, teacher, veterinarian, wildlife enthusiast; your story if you've encountered a trap on public land ... anything that brings context to your message.
- Traps, snares, and poisons are cruel: Trapped, snared, and poisoned animals are subject to prolonged pain, dehydration, starvation, broken bones, predation, dislocation, self-amputation, trauma, and painful death.
- Trapping gives New Mexico's outdoor recreation reputation a black eye. With our neighbors Colorado and Arizona having banned traps on public lands since the 1990s, New Mexico presents unnecessary added risk to outdoor recreationists and tourists. In recent years, reports have included a tourist finding a bloodied raven in a leg hold trap, and a resident's morning stroll disturbed by the discovery of a trapper's dump site with skinned, rotting coyote carcasses.
- Trapping violates the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation: Unlike game species hunted in New Mexico, furbearer species can be taken in unlimited numbers and sold in commercial markets. Trapping drains a public resource for private commercial profit, which violates the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
- Traps are indiscriminate: Traps frequently maim and kill non-target animals and there are many such instances across the state over past years, including trapped black bears, endangered Mexican gray wolves (at least 2-3 per year on average), mountain lions, and wild native birds.
- Traps are a public safety hazard: Along with non-target wildlife, leghold traps have injured and killed domestic dogs or cats in nearly every county in New Mexico, including in sparsely populated rural and wilderness areas. In the current 2020-2021 trapping season alone (which started Nov. 1, 2020), six dogs have been reported to be caught in traps.
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Roxy's Law Bill Sponsor
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As your constituent, I thank you for co-sponsoring #RoxysLaw to ban cruel traps, snares, and poisons on New Mexico public lands. #KeepNMPublicLandsSafe #NMTrue #NMLEG #SenateBill32
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New Mexico State Representatives
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Write your Twitter post below. Here's our recommended tweet:
As your constituent, I urge you to VOTE YES on #SenateBill32 #RoxysLaw to ban cruel traps, snares, and poisons on New Mexico public lands. #KeepNMPublicLandsSafe #NMTrue #NMLEG
Remaining:
Thank your legislator(s) who have already voted 'yes' on Roxy's Law!
This tweet will be delivered to
Write your Twitter post below. Here's our recommended tweet:
As your constituent, I thank you for voting YES on #RoxysLaw to ban cruel traps, snares, and poisons on New Mexico public lands. #KeepNMPublicLandsSafe #NMTrue #NMLEG #SenateBill32
Remaining:
We're sorry, this email form is only for New Mexicans to contact their own state legislators.
HOWEVER: If you live out-of-state, but you have an important story to tell or information to share, please email your message directly to media@apvnm.org and we will direct it to elected officials who need to hear your voice. Thank you.
Please also share our Action Page widely: apvnm.org/NoTraps