California becomes first state to ban fur trapping

California Gov. Gavin NewsomGavin Christopher Newsom California governor signs bill to repeal legislation barring police from asking for help. Meet the former union organizer, a serious threat to Uber and Lyft. California offers new students two years of free classes in college community PLUS (D) Wednesday signed a measure making the state the first to ban the trapping of furs, according to the Los Angeles Times.

According to the Times, the Wildlife Protection Act prohibits commercial or recreational trapping on private and public lands.

The commercial trapping industry has shaped the early days of the economy of California and the American West in general, but has played a smaller and smaller role over the decades.

"This sounds particularly cruel, obviously, and it's just useless and expensive," said Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D), who introduced the bill. She added that the 70 or so trappers who continue to work in the state, compared to thousands a century ago, can not afford to pay the cost of regulating the industry, according to the Times.

According to data from the California Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, 68 trappers killed 1,568 animals across the state in 2017, including coyotes, badgers, mink, gray fox, and beaver. To avoid damaging the furs, these animals were strangled, slaughtered or beaten to death.

Despite declining trapping in the state, outrage against the practice has been widespread since 2013, when conservationist Tom O'Key came across a lynx trap illegally set on his land, according to the Times.

"I could not guess in a million years that the trap would unleash an unstoppable movement that could change legislative thinking in favor of wildlife," O'Key told the newspaper. The incident also led to the 2013 Bobcat Protection Act and a 3-2 vote by the California Fish and Game Commission to ban commercial trapping of the bobcat.