Exciting news: thanks to your support, AB 273, the bill to ban all commercial and recreational trapping of fur-bearing and nongame mammals, including coyotes and foxes, is up for a vote in the State Senate. Passage in the Senate is the last step to ban this cruel and senseless practice in California before it goes to the governor’s desk for signature. You helped us get a ban imposed on commercial and recreational bobcat trapping in California in 2015—now let’s extend that ban to the other animals who suffer as a result of the fur trade.
Please act today—urge your State Senator to vote YES on AB 273!
Please go here to find contact information for your Senator.
First, send a polite email or message to your Senator asking him or her to vote YES on AB 273 to end the commercial and recreational trapping of fur-bearing and nongame mammals. Be sure to mention any special roles you play in your community. Additional talking points below.
Next, follow up with a brief phone call.
Talking Points
- Hundreds of coyotes, foxes, and other animals are trapped in California so their pelts can be sold overseas.
- A tiny minority of the population traps animals for fur. Only 133 trapping licenses were sold to fur trappers in California in 2017 (and only 68 of those licensees trapped wildlife—killing 1,568 animals, including grey foxes, coyotes, beavers, badgers, muskrats and mink and selling 1,241 pelts for an estimated total of $4,531), generating less than $15,000 for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The funds spent to manage and enforce fur trapping far exceed the money brought in by selling trapping licenses, meaning taxpayer dollars subsidize the fur industry.
- Coyotes, foxes and other wild animals are critical to healthy ecosystems—concentrated removal of these animals is counterproductive to sound wildlife management and is wasteful, unnecessary and cruel.
- California’s wildlife is worth more alive than dead. While the sale of fur pelts generated less than $5,000 in 2017, wildlife watching produced nearly $4 billion in revenue for California’s economy.
Thank you for speaking up for California’s wildlife!
Camilla H. Fox
Founder & Executive Director