Thank you for signing!
Ban Cruel Trapping On Wildlife Refuges
Final signature count: 28,818
28,818 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site
Millions of animals meet horrific and painful deaths each year, as hunters use outdated trapping methods. Take a stand!
Animal trapping fuels an industry of cruelty and death in the United States.
Animals in fur farms live miserable lives in confinement, while those trapped in the wild often face an even worse fate.¹ Body-gripping traps such as Conibear traps, steel-jaw leghold traps, snares, and similar devices are among the cruelest methods still in use. These indiscriminate traps are used to capture and kill millions of animals each year in the United States, and they injure not only target animals, but also hundreds of non-target victims, including endangered and threatened species, companion animals, livestock, and even people.²
Animals caught in these traps can suffer severe injuries, panic, and prolonged deaths. Some struggle so desperately to escape that they chew off their own limbs, only to die later from blood loss, infection, shock, or exposure.¹ Wildlife refuges should be places of safety, not landscapes where animals are maimed and killed by brutal devices.
The cruelty tied to the fur trade extends beyond trapping in the wild. On fur farms, animals are packed into confinement, where disease can spread easily. In 2020 and 2021, millions of mink on farms in the Netherlands were killed after coronavirus outbreaks swept through facilities.³ Fur farms in the United States have also seen mink test positive for SARS-CoV-2, and reports have documented other outbreaks including toxoplasmosis and canine distemper.⁴ ⁵
Despite these realities, protections remain weak. Anti-cruelty laws often exempt farmed animals, including those raised for fur, even as public concern over animal suffering has grown.⁶ At the same time, more jurisdictions have begun to ban fur sales or regulate trapping practices, reflecting a growing recognition that these industries rely on suffering that should no longer be tolerated.⁵ ⁷
Wildlife refuges exist to conserve animals and protect habitats. Cruel body-gripping traps have no place on these public lands. The federal government must ban leghold traps, snares, Conibear traps, and similar devices throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System and ensure these protected areas truly serve as sanctuaries for wildlife.⁸
Help us protect animals from needless suffering. Sign the petition calling for a ban on cruel trapping on U.S. wildlife refuges.
