I'll be curious to see how may replies you get from people who've actually trapped. I grew up on a cattle ranch. My dad was a ranch hand for 28 years. We always had a roof over our heads and plenty of food to eat, but cash money was in short supply. We did lots of things to make extra cash, from cutting firewood to bucking hay bales. One of those things was running trap lines for furbearers in the winter. Mostly muskrats, raccoons and opossums, with the occasional beaver and yote if we were lucky, and skunks if we weren't. I used leg traps, snares and live traps.
Anyone who's lived the full time ranching life knows that extra time is in short supply. There are gardens to be tended, animals to be fed and cared for, crops to sow and harvest, undergrowth to be cleared, repairs and improvements to be made and so forth. So sitting in a hide waiting for nuisance animals to show up for eradication isn't the best use of time. Better to set your traps and check them after all the other chores are done.
From an ethical standpoint, I preferred live traps whenever possible. If I trapped a non-targeted species, I could simply release them and move on. It happened a lot.
After live traps I preferred drown sets. That usually precluded most non-targeted species and made for a quicker end for the trapped animals. As a matter of fact, I don't ever remember taking a non-targeted species in a drown set.
After that, locking neck snares. Again to effect a quicker end for the animals, with some taking of non targeted species. Mostly feral cats (no big loss, they devastate quail populations) and on a couple of occasions, dogs.
While occasionally necessary due to circumstances, I really didn't like using leg traps in a non drown set. It always bothered me how long an animal suffers before being dispatched in a leg trap. I ran those twice daily at dusk and dawn.
So on the topic of non-live traps for hunters? I think there are certain circumstances where they should be approved. But in most circumstances? No. There's just too much room for abuse and waste. Maybe I'm just a softie now that I'm older? It pisses me off when I find unattended (and usually unmarked) trotlines, limblines and juglines with hooks in the water. I'll take time out of my own fishing to remove them or at least make sure the hooks can't snag a fish to waste for days or weeks before death. It's just inhumane and utterly unnecessary. Take the time necessary to police and secure your traps and lines, or you aren't a sportsman, at all.
As to predatory species and nature's balance? I guess it depends on just how many wolves per square mile you have in your area? If too many, you probably need a control program. But I'll bet more deer are sport killed by roving dog packs than wolves kill for survival. Just a guess, but it happens more than folks know.
In my area, we have WAY too many hawks. They're all fat and don't even seem to mind human presence much anymore. I have two that roost in my back yard, much to the chagrin of the squirrels and rabbits. The big thing is how much they and feral cats diminish the rodent population, which pushes the abundant number of yotes to search out both deer and family pets in my area. But raptors are federally protected, so there's nothing that can be done there.
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