California may be going fur free – and it may be ending fur trapping, too.
Less than two months after legislation to ban the commercial sale of fur in California was introduced by Assembly Member Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) introduced the Wildlife Protection Act of 2019.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Gonzalez Fletcher noted not only the inherently inhumane treatment of “increasingly vulnerable wildlife populations” trapped for their fur, but the drastically shifting financial situation of the trapping industry.
“Taxpayers are subsidizing this unnecessary commercial activity, because the cost of running this program isn’t even covered by the revenue from trapping license fees,” Gonzalez Fletcher told The Times. “The revenue generated by the sale of trapping licenses only covers a fraction of the costs of even a single warden … The minimal revenue generated by the sale of furs of the animals killed by trappers is dwarfed by the millions of dollars that wildlife watching generates in the California economy.”
The Times significantly included a harsh history of the fur trade in their article, stating: “Historically, even before California’s population ballooned to roughly 40 million people, fur trapping played a significant role in the extirpation ofwolvesand wolverines and the severe declines of sea otters, fishers, martens, beavers and other fur-bearing species.”
The Fur-Bearers are thrilled to see governments beginning to recognize the dire state of wildlife and the environment will not be fixed by killing more animals for commodities. We will follow the movement of this legislation closely and provide updates as they’re available.
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