National Wildlife Refuges: NOT Safe Havens for Wildlife
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Born Free USA
October 2014

Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Wildlife Refuge System was originally established as "inviolate sanctuaries" for wildlife. But, did you know that more than 300 of the 562 National Wildlife Refuges actually allow recreational hunting and trapping?

This is National Wildlife Refuge Week... but there's little reason to celebrate.

Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Wildlife Refuge System was originally established as "inviolate sanctuaries" for wildlife. But, did you know that more than 300 of the 562 National Wildlife Refuges actually allow recreational hunting and trapping?

With killing permitted on these federal lands, National Wildlife Refuges are anything but 'refuges' for animals. According to this survey, nearly four of five Americans (79%) oppose trapping on these lands.

Trapping is a barbaric, archaic practice that causes indescribable suffering and death for millions of animals in the United States each year. However, "non-target" animals are also captured in traps set for other species. The victims of trapping are often family cats and dogs, squirrels, bears, hawks, and threatened or endangered species.

So, if you really want to celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week, may I ask you to do three things?

1. Please consider a donation to Born Free USA's Trapping Victims Fund, which helps to cover the cost of veterinary care for individual "non-target" animals impacted by cruel traps, as well as the rehabilitation and release of injured wildlife. These donations provide relief to injured animals and to the people who care for them—and can mean the difference between life and death.

2. Help us advance legislation to protect animals from trapping. Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) has reintroduced the Refuge From Cruel Trapping Act (H.R. 3513), which would ban all body-gripping traps—such as snares, Conibears, and steel-jaw leghold traps—from being used or possessed on National Wildlife Refuges. Click here to urge Congress to pass this bill quickly.

3. Visit Born Free USA’s Safe Trails website for more information about the dangers that traps pose to companion animals and wildlife, and how you can protect your dog or cat.

Help make National Wildlife Refuges the safe havens for wildlife that they are meant to be.


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