News

Anti’s Appeal Maine Trapping Decision

On December 4, animal rights activists appealed last month’s court victory that protected trapping in Maine.   The appeal seeks to overturn a key legal precedent protecting sportsmen’s rights and represents a continuing effort to misuse the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to stop all hunting, fishing, and trapping.

In the November 10 decision, Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. of Maine’s Federal District Court denied an injunction sought by the anti’s to stop the state’s trapping season.  The decision also helped establish a significant legal precedent protecting all hunting, fishing and trapping.  The opinion requires that plaintiffs seeking to shut down a trapping (or hunting or fishing) season prove not only the accidental take of ESA-protected species, but also “irreparable harm” to the entire population.    Judge Woodcock concluded that take of individual members of a reasonably numerous protected species, such as Canada lynx, does not meet the requirement of irreparable harm in this case.  This led to the latest appeal.  The anti’s have also announced plans to hire a new law firm to handle the appeal.

The case was originally filed in 2008 by the Animal Welfare Institute and the Wildlife Alliance of Maine against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.  The anti’s claimed that Maine’s trapping regulations provided insufficient protection for the Canada lynx, a species listed as threatened under the ESA and thus required the season to be stopped. 

Throughout the case, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF), along with the Maine Trappers’ Association, Fur Takers of America, National Trappers’ Association, and several individual sportsmen, argued that the anti’s had to show that Maine’s trapping practices were a threat to the entire Canada lynx population. 

“We fully expect to win the appeal and are dedicated to winning this fight no matter how far the anti’s decide to take it,” said Rob Sexton, USSAF vice president for government affairs.  “A sportsmen win here will make it increasingly difficult for the anti’s to manipulate the ESA in order to ban hunting, fishing and trapping across the country.”