Snaring clarification

In an article on a public hearing regarding proposed legislation to ban snaring (BDN, Feb. 26), Misty Edgecomb wrote, “… and The Wildlife Society, a professional organization for biologists, [all] lent their support to banning the snare as a means of predator control.”

While the Maine chapter of The Wildlife Society (MeTWS) is a professional organization for biologists, MeTWS does not support banning snares for use in predator control. At this public hearing, MeTWS delivered a statement critical of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife coyote control program. This criticism stems from what we consider to be two science-related shortcomings of the program – a lack of adequate evaluation procedures to measure effectiveness of the program and a lack of adequate evaluation of the risk of killing nontarget wildlife.

MeTWS’s criticism of the state’s coyote-control program should not be misconstrued as support for either of the snaring-related bills that were the focus of Monday’s public hearing.

Andrew Weik

President

Maine Chapter of the Wildlife Society

Hampden