Fur trappers want to defy the will of a majority of New Mexicans in court
Photo of Roxy, who strangled to death in a snare set on public land by a trapper in 2018. (Photo of Roxy by Kathrina Clark)
Yesterday, news broke that fur-trapping organizations have filed a lawsuit to try to overturn the Wildlife Conservation & Public Safety Act, aka “Roxy’s Law,” in federal court.
Roxy’s Law restricts the use of traps, snares, and poisons on public lands in New Mexico. The law was passed by the New Mexico Legislature and signed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2021, and it went into effect in April 2022.
In the lawsuit filed this week, the plaintiffs (the New Mexico Trappers Association, the National Trappers Association, and Fur Takers of America) complain that an exception in the law—which allows enrolled Native American tribal members to use traps solely as part of their constitutionally protected religious practices—is itself unconstitutional and violates other trappers’ so-called “right” to use traps and snares as a mere hobby or for private profit.
Fur trappers are simply desperate to try everything they can to maintain their gruesome and wildly unpopular practices here in New Mexico. Their attempts are just like the cockfighters before them, whose efforts to undo our state’s 2007 cockfighting ban on constitutional and civil rights grounds were dismissed by the judiciary branch. Similarly, the pork producers’ recent claims that a California law requiring more humane enclosures for pigs were unconstitutional made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it failed, too. Those who profit from or find sport in animal cruelty always fight efforts to stop their activities—this is nothing new.
This challenge of Roxy’s Law is the fur trappers’ frantic last gasp to resuscitate a dying and cruel industry not supported by most New Mexicans.
We believe Roxy’s Law will survive scrutiny by the courts.
Thank you for your ongoing support, and please stay tuned for further developments on this case.
