Pet owners worried about trapping regulations
By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal
The need to protect domestic pets from harmful animal traps, a risk of interfering with professional pest controllers and affronts to private property rights again are emerging as sensitive issues as state wildlife officials renew debate over urban trapping regulations.
A subcommittee of the Nevada Wildlife Commission held a workshop on the issue in Reno on Wednesday, two days after a similar forum in Las Vegas.
A draft proposal, stemming from legislation passed by the 2011 Legislature, would ban leg traps within 1,000 feet of homes in Washoe and Clark counties.
Animal advocates say that’s not near good enough, pushing Wednesday for banning traps much further from homes — perhaps by nearly a mile.
“The more comfort we can have, the better off we are,” said Trish Swain, organizer of the nonprofit group TrailSafe. TrailSafe successfully pushed to ban trapping near popular hiking trails near Mount Rose in 2006 and now is trying for expanded regulations in residential areas of Nevada’s most populous counties.
The Legislature directed the Wildlife Commission to pass trapping regulations after it failed to do so in 2010.