BMPs are failed scientifically-researched recommendations for traps and trapping systems used to capture furbearers in the United States. These tests cause needless suffering and death of wildlife. This groundbreaking peer-reviewed study critically evaluates the methodology that U.S. state wildlife agencies heavily rely on to justify trapping.
Here are the gory details… The BMP program tests at least 23 furbearing species, using recreational fur trappers who are paid to participate. Trappers are instructed to set traps using specific provided criteria. The trapped animals are killed and the carcasses are then sent to be necropsied and rated on a trap injury trauma scale. Hemorrhages and lacerations, regardless of severity, are always considered minor. Eye lacerations and tooth fractures with pulp exposure—which are recognized as extremely painful injuries—are given low values in regard to severity. No consideration is given to the size of the animal, even though a two-centimeter laceration on a two-pound marten may be more critical than on a 40-pound coyote. The trapper submits an invoice to the AFWA and receives a check for his time and expenses for participating in the program.
“As this 2001 entry from one AFWA trap tester’s log reveals, the BMP trap-testing program has meant indescribable pain and suffering for individual animals:
… caught 16 beaver in the SNR02 [a particular type of body snare]. One beaver was eaten by a coyote. One beaver was drown[ed], caused by entanglement. One beaver caught by the neck suffocated. One small beaver caught by the neck and one front leg was dead, probably by suffocation.”
Linda Corbin
Why does anybody need to trap anything these days? It’s not like we need the fur anymore. Traps are inhumane and animals suffer horribly when caught. Stop trapping, period.