The D.C. Council thinks pesky animals like opossums, raccoons and foxes are getting a tough break when they’re snared in traps, so council members are pushing forward with legislation to ease the animals’ burden.
The legislation introduced by Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh that sets new standards for the treatment of wild animals by the professionals hired to boot the critters out of homes received tentative approval Tuesday from the full council. The bill was backed heavily by the Humane Society, which also runs a for-profit company in Washington that critics of the legislation say would receive a competitive edge from the new regulations.
As it stands, the new law would create a licensing system for wildlife managers while also restricting the tools they use to catch, and sometimes kill, the beasts that mosey into homes, tear up gardens and tip over garbage cans. No longer would snares, body-gripping traps, leg-trapping glue or poison be allowed. The legislation does not apply to homeowners or property managers. It also does not apply to rats or mice.
The bill also requires wildlife managers to make “every reasonable effort to preserve family units using humane eviction or displacement and reunion strategies.” Cheh said that means keeping an eye out for offspring to keep animal families intact.
But by changing the wildlife capture game, the bill might also add cost to consumers while giving an edge to a company run by the nonprofit organization that helped craft the legislation.
“A company that’s already using that business model will have a step on other companies,” said Gene Harrington of the National Pest Management Association.
That company is the Humane Wildlife Services, a “wildlife-conflict solution service provided to homeowners, businesses, and industry in the Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area by The [Humane Society of the United States],” according to a link on the Humane Society’s Web site. The company’s primary service is sealing homes from wildlife to end the human-versus-beast conflict. Harrington said without the tools that would be eliminated by the bill, the only thing left to do is seal the home, sending a slew of customers to the Humane Society’s company.
“If they actually are available for using humane efforts,” Cheh said, “… then like anyone else, they should be able to do it.”
Scott Giacoppo of the Washington Humane Society said it’s the tools that are the problem.
“I have a long history of investigating animals found writhing in pain for hours,” he said. “If they have a problem getting rid of these traps, then it speaks volumes of where they stand.”
Giacoppo said in the past five years he’s investigated at most four instances of poor treatment of animals by wildlife managers.
“One time would be too many,” he said.
