P.E.I. unlikely to ban trapping, but changes could come ahead of 2024 season

Despite some calls for a full ban of the practice, Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Steven Myers says it seems unlikely P.E.I. will put an end to all trapping of animals — but his department does plan to implement some changes ahead of the next season.

A petition to ban trapping and snaring carrying hundreds of signatures was tabled in the legislature Tuesday, minutes after Myers introduced a review commissioned by the province to look into both the activity itself and the impact a ban would have.

The review was done by the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative through the Atlantic Veterinary College. Authored by Pierre-Yves Daoust, a retired wildlife pathologist, the report raises concerns about the challenges a ban would pose to effective wildlife management and population control.

"We started out with the approach that we wanted to ban snaring especially … I asked for evidence and that's the evidence I got. So sometimes when you present a hypothesis, your research doesn't support what you wanted," Myers told CBC News on Tuesday.

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"I'm still committed to it, but we have to look at a path that takes into consideration all the recommendations and all the adverse affects we may put in place by banning … My personal feelings aside, we have to follow the science and that's where I'm stuck."

Even if we ban a trap, it doesn't mean the trap still won't exist.— Steven Myers

Daoust's report spans the history of trapping in the province, from how the Mi'kmaq and European settlers did it right up until the modern day.

It concludes with several recommendations. 

The review suggests the current pool of experienced trappers on the Island needs to be expanded, in light of how it has dwindled over the last decade, and proposes that be done by means of apprenticeships and mandatory refresher courses.

"At one point, there was a value in the industry. People would trap and they had a pelt that was worth money. And that market kind of doesn't exist anymore," Myers said.

Less demand for fur

Demand for fur has fallen over the last decade, as the animal rights lobby swelled around the world, and the price pelts will fetch has fallen in tandem. Membership in the P.E.I. Trappers Association has dropped as well, decreasing from 67 to 44 members since 2013.

"It's more either trapping for nuisance purposes or trapping for food purposes, and there would be very few animals that you would trap for food purposes here," Myers said.

Daoust's review says trapping is an essential tool in wildlife management. Pointing to situations like beaver dams flooding roads, the emergence of nuisance coyotes, and the push to keep rabies from spreading, it says experienced trappers would be needed.

However, the report does encourage the use of restraining neck snares rather than killing snares, and says more research on killing snares is needed.

Enforcement challenges

Then there's the question of enforcement, if trapping were to be banned or restricted. In many high-profile instances of pets dying in snares, the trappers in question were already illegally setting the devices. 

Myers acknowledges that enforcement will be the most difficult part of tightening any rules.

He also mentioned the possibility that devices newly made illegal would be abandoned in the woods rather than retrieved by the people who put them there.

"If nobody comes back for an illegal trap, how do you find the person who set it?" he said. "Even if we ban a trap, it doesn't mean the trap still won't exist." 

Myers said his department will review Daoust's recommendations and consult this winter before bringing in any changes. He hopes to do that before the 2024 trapping season, which starts next October. 

"There is a fine line to be walked here to make everybody happy," he said.

"We're going to try to find a path to get rid of the inhumane practices that we currently have and still allow enough trapping that we can raise professional trappers so we still have them here."