Stop the use of bone crushing traps on federal land

The National Wildlife Refuge System, whose vast networks comprise millions of acres in every state, is charged with the conservation, management and restoration of wildlife for the benefit of Americans. Yet 54% of these lands allow body gripping traps, including neck snares, conibear, and steel jaw leg hold traps, all of which cause excruciating pain to anything caught within them. Their brutality is shocking, with animals known to chew off their own limbs to escape. Check times vary according to state, but it's not uncommon for animals to linger, sometimes for days, in massive misery. These traps are also indiscriminate, catching pets, endangered species (there are more than 240 different kinds in the system), even people, in their grip.

Such arcane evil has no place in our country, especially on government property whose intended purpose is to protect and preserve these innocent animals. Fortunately, Congresswoman Nita Lowery (D-NY) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) have introduced The Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, (H.R. 2016/5 1081) which would ban the use or possession of all body-gripping traps on lands within the National Wildlife Refuge System. We encourage swift passage of this legislation and an end to these barbaric practices. Please sign this petition and urge your state representatives to join Representative Lowery and Senator Booker in support of this bill.

As part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a core principle of the refuge system is "that land is a community of life and that love and respect for the land is an extension of ethics". Demand that there be a return to the morality upon which this park system was established and to the responsibility with which it was charged.