Bill > H4165

This bill amends existing law to prohibit the use, setting, placement, maintenance, manufacturing, or possession of traps for capturing furbearing mammals, with exceptions for common mouse and rat traps, nets, and box or cage-type traps that fully confine the animal without grasping any part of it, such as Hancock or Bailey's live traps for beavers. Traps designed to grip a furbearing mammal's body, including steel jaw leghold traps and snares, are specifically banned. However, these restrictions do not apply to federal and state departments of health or municipal boards of health when acting to protect human health and safety from specific threats posed by beavers or muskrats, such as flooding of water supplies, wells, sewage systems, public ways, utilities, or critical facilities, or damage to electrical equipment. The bill also establishes a process for licensing "beaver and muskrat control officers" who will be trained to identify and alleviate these threats using humane methods, including specific types of traps, breaching dams, or employing non-lethal devices, all subject to notification and approval from relevant authorities like local boards of health and conservation commissions. The division of fisheries and wildlife will report annually on the activities of these control officers, and the division, along with the department of public health, will issue regulations for the application process, training, licensure, and standard procedures for these officers, with penalties for violations including fines, imprisonment, and permanent barring from trapping licenses and permits.