Sierra Club Adopts Anti-Trapping Policy

Straight from the horse’s mouth, here’s the Sierra Club’s new anti-trapping policy:

Policy on Trapping of Wildlife
Use of body-gripping devices* – including leghold traps, snares, and Conibear® traps – are
indiscriminate to age, sex and species and typically result in injury, pain, suffering, and/or death
of target and non-target animals.
The Sierra Club considers body-gripping, restraining and killing traps and snares to be
ecologically indiscriminate and unnecessarily inhumane and therefore opposes their use. The
Sierra Club promotes and supports humane, practical and effective methods of mitigating
human-wildlife conflicts and actively discourages the use of inhumane and indiscriminate
methods.
Sierra Club recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples under federal laws and treaties granting
rights of self-determination and rights to pursue subsistence taking of wildlife.
*Body gripping device – includes, but is not limited to, any snare (neck, body, or leg), kill-type
trap (such as the Conibear®), leghold trap (including steel-jaw, padded, offset), and any other
device designed to grip a body or body part. This definition includes any device that may result
in injury or death because of the mechanism of entrapment. Live cage and box traps, and
common rat and mousetraps shall not be considered body-gripping devices.
Board of Directors, May 19, 2012

I’m not sure what to think about this.  One would think that informed members of the Sierra Club would recognize the importance of trapping to sound scientific wildlife management?  This policy is sure to influence the future makeup of the Sierra Club’s membership.  Potential members should be fully aware of this policy prior to joining or contributing funding to the organization.

Here’s the link to the policy.

Here are a couple of perspectives from sportsmen:

NRA Article

Bill Conners’ Sierra Club column