In 2021, we celebrated when the New Mexico Legislature passed Senate Bill 32 and finally enacted a ban on traps, snares, and poisons on public lands in the New Mexico (with limited exceptions).
The win came after many years of toil by Animal Protection Voters and our coalition allies, documenting the increasing incidents of innocent hikers coming across animals languishing or dead due to painful devices strewn across public land by fur trappers and exterminators. Some of the worst stories were from people who were forced to rescue their own dogs from leg-hold traps or snares on public lands.
Sometimes the rescue effort was too late. The tipping point in the discourse on this issue was when a dog named Roxy was strangled by a neck snare and died in her person’s arms. Not long after that happened, the Governor signed into law the bill that was called “Roxy’s Law,” protecting more wildlife from cruel and profit-driven exploitation and keeping everyone safer on public lands.
Although the law went into effect in April 2022, it hangs in the balance as pro-trapping organizations challenged Roxy’s Law in federal court, complaining about an exception in the law that allows Native American trapping as part of their constitutionally protected religious practices.
Here’s the good news: Last month, the federal district judge presiding over the lawsuit granted the State’s motion to dismiss. That means the trappers’ attempt to undo Roxy’s Law, at this stage, failed. Animal Protection Voters was honored to collaborate with the State’s attorneys as they prepared the motion to dismiss, and the judge agreed with the State that the trapping organizations lacked legal standing to sue.
But it’s not over yet. The fur trapping organizations, desperate to keep their cruel and dying hobby alive, have filed a notice of appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the Tenth Circuit, a panel of appellate judges will review the case to ensure the law was applied fairly and correctly in the district court’s decision. That appeals court will then have an opportunity to uphold the district court’s ruling, which means Roxy’s Law lives on; or the appeals court could decide to reverse the district court’s ruling, which could send the issue back to district court for further litigation and keep Roxy’s Law under threat. Ultimately, this issue and legal question will still be pending for some time.
In the meantime, the vast majority of New Mexicans support the ban on public land trapping. The next trapping season is set to begin on November 1, but since the passage of Roxy’s Law, public/dog trapping incident reports are now exceedingly rare, and the number of wild “furbearer” animals being killed has reduced by over half. The law has unquestionably had a positive impact on the humane treatment of animals in New Mexico and the enjoyment of the great outdoors by all of us.
Animal Protection Voters will remain vigilant and do everything in our power to keep this important and humane conservation law on the books. Stay tuned for more news on the Roxy’s Law legal battle in the future.