February, 25, 2025
Vermont Sierra Club expresses support for H.132, an act relating to the taking of furbearers
Dear Chair Sheldon and members of the House Environment Committee,
On behalf of the Vermont Sierra Club and the nearly ten thousand members and supporters throughout Vermont, we would like to express support for H.132, an act relating to the taking of furbearers. We believe that inhumane and antiquated practices should be regulated but we also urge the legislature to continue engaging with the members of the hunting community.
The use of bait to hunt wildlife in Vermont draws animals unnaturally close to areas of human habitation, which is something that we want to explicitly avoid as we try to minimize human-wildlife conflict in an increasingly crowded world. The use of bait to hunt wildlife also has the potential to spread disease between wildlife species that would not normally congregate in the high densities that bait piles can encourage. A 2013 study in the Journal of Preventative Veterinary Medicine explicitly stated “current information is sufficient to conclude that providing food to wildlife through supplemental feeding or baiting has great potential to negatively impact species health and represents a non-natural arena for disease transmission and preservation. This practice undermines the initial purpose of feeding practices and represents a serious risk to the maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, human health, and livestock production.”
H.132 provides an exemption to agricultural practices, ensuring that farmers would not be detrimentally impacted by this policy. Additionally, there have been several incidents in the last few years in which dogs in Vermont have been tragically shot and killed over piles of bait intended to lure coyotes. Your committee heard testimony on 2/19 from Amy Stewart, the guardian of Sadie who was shot and killed in Dummerston in 2023, and we believe that a similar event should never happen again in the state of Vermont. For the sake of wildlife, pets, and people who care about animals the Vermont Sierra Club supports the passage of H.132 and urges you to vote in favor of this bill.