Proposal snares many sides into the pest control debate
Farmers and animal rights
activists disagree on the
targeted trapping methods of
Ballot Measure 97
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
Junction City sheep rancher
Cleve Dumdi , who runs several
thousand head over 30 fields, once
lost five sheep to one coyote in only
two weeks. At $90 per sheep, and
with the current competitive mar
ket, Dumdi said state Ballot Mea
sure 97, which would ban most an
imal traps, would hurt the business
of his family-owned ranch.
Mari Margil, conservation coor
dinator for the
Oregon chapter
of the Sierra
Club, disagrees.
She sees the
traps in question
as a vicious, an
tiquated method
of animal con
trol that creates
many more dangers for people, pets
and ecosystems than it does bene
fits for ranchers.
Dumdi and Margil represent the
two sides in the debate over the
anti-trapping measure, which has
farmers claiming their livelihoods
are threatened and animal rights ac
tivists arguing the traps are just
downright cruel.
The group Protect Pets & Wildlife
drafted Measure 97, which would
prohibit the use of steel-jaw leghold
traps and other traps commonly
used to capture mammals. It would
also make the sale, purchase and
exchange of raw fur obtained
through the use of such traps ille
gal, as well as the use of poisons
sodium fluoroacetate and sodium
cyanide.
Measure 97 would, however, al
low for special use permits from
the Department of Fish and
Wildlife for padded jaw traps and
non-strangling foot snares for deal
ing with pests, if a landowner
could successfully prove that they
had tried alternative methods of
pest control.
Supporters of the measure, how
ever, have a hard time acknowledg
ing that there is any need for traps.
Kelly Peterson, campaign manag
er for the measure, said that many
animals suffer for days after being
caught in traps, before dying from
starvation or escaping after chew
ing off their own limbs.
Peterson said her group gathered
104,000 signatures, 15,000 of
which were taken in Lane County,
Measure 97 would prohibit the use
of animal traps, including steel
jawed leghold traps, and would
outlaw the sale and harvest of fur
using such traps. It would also ban
the use of the poisons sodium fluo
roacetate and sodium cyanide.
Proponents say the measure will
put an end to the use of unneces
sarily cruel traps that indiscrimi
nately snare animals.
Opponents say the measure would
take a vital element of the agricul
tural business out of the hands of
farmers and ranchers.
to place the measure on the state
ballot. She said they received signa
tures from Harney, Klamath and
Wallowa counties, where the chief
industry is agriculture. This, Peter
son said, proves that some farmers
do support the measure.
“It’s not just a West-versus-East
thing,” she said. “These traps affect
{ ( Sometimes there are
legitimate reasons for
traps, but we're trying to
make it a last resort rather
than a first response:
Kelly Peterson
campaign manager for
measure 97
family pets, they’re so indiscrimi
nate.”
Peterson said she grew up in the
country, and most of her family still
hunts. She said she understands
how some of the farmers against
Measure 97 feel, but she can’t over
look what she sees as the wanton
cruelty of the traps.
“There’s real difference in hunt
ing and taking an animal quickly,
than in trapping it and letting it suf
fer,” she said.
She said farmers and ranchers
should look to alternative methods,
such as electric fencing and territo
rial animals, including dogs and
llamas, to keep predators at bay.
“Sometimes there are legitimate
reasons for traps, but we’re trying to
make it a last resort rather than a
first response,” she said.
Rancher Dumdi said he uses
electric fences as much as he can,
but with a herd as large as his
spread out over several different
fields, he needs every method of
coyote control there is. Dumdi said
he doesn’t use traps just because he
has a personal vendetta against the
predators, but because his business
requires it.
“We’re not just out there to mas
sacre coyotes, but when we have a
coyote hit the herd, I get the trapper
and we try and get it," he said.
To place traps, Dumdi said he
has to notify all neighboring land
owners and put up signs. He said
he also has to obtain a permit from
the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife. To Dumdi, this is already
a lengthy process, and if he had to
prove to the department that he has
tried alternatives to trapping, it
would only give pests and preda
tors more time to damage his herd.
Margil, the conservation coordi
nator for the Sierra Club, said her
group supports Measure 97 be
cause of the adverse effect trapping
has on Oregon’s environment. She
said endangered and threatened an
imals often are trapped and die,
and poisons can have devastating
effects on food chains.
“Smaller rodents can eat the poi
son and get into the food chain and
then kill endangered species,” she
said.
She has little sympathy for
ranchers and farmers who she said
are too reliant on traps and should
not even be targeting predators in
the first place. When asked about
the opposition’s arguments about
Measure 97 being too restrictive,
she was quick to respond.
“I don’t buy into that whatsoev
er,” she said.
In addition to the Sierra Club,
Measure 97 is supported by several
of the Oregon chapters of the
Audubon Society, 11 veterinarians
and the senior vice president of the
Humane Society of the United
States.
Groups that are opposed to the
measure include: The Oregon Cat
tlemen’s Association, Association
of Oregon Counties, Oregon State
Grange, Oregon Golf Course Own
ers Association and several other
organizations.
Andy Anderson, executive vice
president of Oregon Farm Bureau,
a farmer’s advocacy group that is
opposed to Measure 97, said the
main reason his group opposes the
measure is that it would hinder
state farmers’ ability to protect
crops from damaging pests that kill
livestock, eat crops or tunnel be
neath crop fields and into irrigation
ditches. He also found fault with
the measure’s wording. The meas
ure would prohibit all “body grip
ping ’ devices, which he said could
be used by animal activists to out
law many essential tools of the live
stock industry, such as squeeze
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“While the proponents are say
ing it isn’t their intent,” he said,
“our lawyers tell us they think they
could make it stick.”
Anderson said agriculture is a
tough business to make money in,
and Measure 97 would only make
it tougher, eradicating a bureaucrat
ic rigamarole that would make it
hard for farmers to deal with pests.
“Right now, if farmers have a
problem, they can go take care of
it,” he said. “Measure 97 would
create a whole new rule-making
process.”
He also said that while the de
partment can’t make an official
stand, he has heard from Depart
ment of Fish and Wildlife workers
that Measure 97 would limit the
department’s ability to manage
state lands. Retired fish and
wildlife directors have filed state
ments in opposition of the meas
ure in the voter’s pamphlet.
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