BC SPCA POLICY STATEMENT

Approved: September 1999

#15 - TRAPPING

The BC SPCA is opposed to the inhumane trapping of animals. Where trapping is carried out for any reason, only those traps that cause instant death, or work on the principle of live capture without pain or injury should be used. The Society will continue to educate and alert the public to the suffering of animals caused by inhumane trapping practices.

Comment:

Because the trapping industry has traditional roots in British Columbia dating back to the early development of the province, it is unlikely trapping will be eliminated in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, the Society urges government and industry to work cooperatively to:

eliminate traps that fail to produce a humane capture or death;

accept nothing less than daily trap inspections on the trap line;

demand mandatory trapper education as a part of licensing, followed by regular upgrading;

fund ongoing scientific trap research, in accordance with Canadian Council on Animal Care requirements, designed to develop traps for both instant killing systems and holding devices that are more humane, selective, safe and efficient, using a minimum of test animals;

legislate only the use of the most humane and progressive trapping systems and methods which cause the least amount of pain, panic and injury;

employ only those trapping techniques which preclude the incidental capture of domestic animals or untargeted species;

ensure that animals captured in live traps are handled humanely;

support trap exchange programs, replacing outmoded traps.

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Trapping - the capture of wild or domestic animals in traps that either kill or restrain them.

Humane death - one in which the animal suffers neither panic nor pain, achieved by instantaneous death or by immediately rendering the animal unconscious with inevitable subsidence into death without regaining consciousness