Fund for Animals Calls on Pennsylvania to End Bobcat Hunting and Trapping

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TO STATE, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SPORTS EDITORS:

Fund for Animals Calls on Pennsylvania to End Bobcat Hunting and Trapping

PENNSYLVANIA, HARRISBURG, Feb. 27 -/E-Wire/-- Pennsylvania's first sport hunting and trapping season on bobcats in 30 years came to a close Saturday. The Fund for Animals is asking Pennsylvania officials to stop this cruel and biologically reckless experiment from occurring again next year. The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) estimates that nearly 60 bobcats were killed this season, most of them in steel-jawed leghold traps. The PGC is already predicting that more than 800 permits will be issued next season.

Experts have criticized the PGC's bobcat management plan as being flawed and inadequate, stating that the agency has too little data on Pennsylvania's bobcat population to justify a sport hunting and trapping season. Dr. Seth Riley, a nationally renowned bobcat expert and wildlife ecologist for the National Park Service, issued an independent critique of the bobcat management plan before the hunting and trapping season began last fall, calling it a "mistake."

Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals, stated, "Despite the widespread publicity that Dr. Riley's criticism of the bobcat management plan received, it recently came to our attention that the commissioners never received copies of this report from their staff. It is inconceivable that the people who voted to allow the sport hunting and trapping of bobcats were not even made aware of this study."

The Fund for Animals and several other plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the PGC for the implementation of the bobcat hunting and trapping season, and the case is currently pending. State Representative Gaynor Cawley has also introduced a bill, HB 560, to place a three-year moratorium on the hunting and trapping of bobcats.

The Fund for Animals

Heidi Prescott, [REDACTED-PHONE], ext. 213, or Diana Norris,

[REDACTED-PHONE], ext. 207, both of The Fund for Animals

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