We need your help. Every year, millions of taxpayer dollars are spent on lethal animal control. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services (“WS”) program killed 2.65 million animals – among them, thousands of non-target animals including imperiled wildlife and beloved companion animals. One particularly cruel method WS uses is poison, which can cause agonizing, slow deaths for the unlucky animals who happen upon any of a variety of poison-laced traps or bait. These poisons are also ineffective, expensive, and obsolete.

Earlier this month—thanks to your support—Governor Newsom signed AB 273 into law, making California the first state in the nation to ban commercial and recreational fur trapping! This momentous law will spare countless wild animals from the unnecessary fur trade. Now we need your help to pass two more critical bills that will protect California’s wild animals from cruel and pointless suffering and death.

As a result of public outcry against cruel and indiscriminate traps, the New Mexico State Game Commission undertook a review of the state’s trapping laws and is now proposing a set of changes. However, the Trap Free New Mexico coalition, of which Project Coyote is a part, believes that these changes largely cater to special interest trapping groups and fall far short of addressing the public’s concerns about trapping. Last year, at least two dogs were killed and a number of others injured, while countless thousands of wild animals were trapped and skinned for their fur.

We are nearing the finish line for three pieces of legislation that will protect wild animals – including bobcats, coyotes, and foxes – from inhumane and pointless suffering and death in California. Thanks to you, AB 273 – the bill to ban all commercial and recreational trapping of fur-bearing and nongame mammals – passed the state legislature and is now on Governor Newsom’s desk awaiting his signature!  Additionally, the bills to ban trophy hunting of bobcats (AB 1254) and the fur trade (AB 44) are making their way through the legislature and have a hearing in Senate Appropriations this Friday. All three bills still need your urgent support.

Thousands of wild animals and pets fall victim to senseless pain and suffering caused by traps in New Mexico. The New Mexico Department of Fish & Game (NMDFG) is recommending changes to the state’s trapping rules – but these changes will fail to protect people, pets and wildlife from cruel and indiscriminate traps.

On August 12th, the Senate Appropriations Committee will hear three bills that are crucial to protecting California’s wild animals from senseless cruelty and death.

For decades, USDA Wildlife Services (“Wildlife Services”) government agents trapped, shot, and killed hundreds of bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions and other wildlife in Mendocino – and inadvertently killed non-target species, including imperiled wildlife and beloved pets, in the process. The County used taxpayer dollars to pay for their lethal wildlife management program, often on behalf of commercial agricultural interests.

Thanks to you, legislation to ban the trophy hunting of bobcats (AB 1254); the use of deadly rodenticides (AB 1788); and the selling, giving or manufacturing of new fur products (AB 44) in California is moving through the state legislature. These bills – which would end the cruel and senseless killing of wildlife – are now up for a hearing in two senate committees.

Thanks to you, legislation to ban the trophy hunting of bobcats (AB 1254); the use of deadly rodenticides (AB 1788); and the selling, giving or manufacturing of new fur products (AB 44) in California is moving through the state legislature. These bills – which would end the cruel and senseless killing of wildlife – are now up for a hearing in two senate committees.

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.

Today, my father Dr. Michael W. Fox is traveling to Brainerd, Minnesota, to join hundreds of other wolf advocates to testify on behalf of Project Coyote before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in opposition to the Trump Administration’s proposal to strip all remaining federal protections for wolves across the lower 48 states (except for Mexican wolves in the Southwest). As a veterinarian, canid ethologist, bioethicist and author of more than 40 books – including The Soul of the Wolf – my father will speak to the many values of wolves.