The critters that creep into D.C. residents’ homes shouldn’t rest too easy now that the D.C. Council has passed a bill designed to outlaw their inhumane slaughter.
Raccoons, opossums, foxes and other “nuisance” beasts can still face death once they’re caught in the humane traps the council is now requiring professional animal catchers to use.
“This bill doesn’t stop euthanasia,” said its sponsor, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh. “They can still be killed, it just has to be humane.”
The bill had a bumpy road to its unanimous passage on Tuesday. First there were concerns that it would prevent homeowners from trapping and killing mice — the bill only applies to wildlife managers, not homeowners, and they can still kill most rats and mice. Then last week, a Virginia wildlife official said the state would not accept the District’s overflow nuisance critters.
On Tuesday, Cheh said the Virginia official’s concerns were “ridiculous” because the bill doesn’t require captured animals to be taken to a rehabilitation center, as the Virginia official implied in a letter sent to the council.
“You can just kill them,” Cheh reiterated.
But although those problems may be solved, others still loom, said Gene Harrington of the National Pest Management Association.
Chief among the association’s concerns is that wildlife managers now would be violating the law if they set a snap trap — the type commonly purchased in a hardware store that’s set on a spring and snaps the mouse’s neck — and it catches a rodent listed as protected by the wildlife bill. Wildlife managers are allowed to use snap traps only to kill two types of rats and the common house mouse under the bill — all others are forbidden and could result in fines. But once the trap is set, they can’t control which animals wander into them.
“Now, they’ll be afraid to trap any rodents,” Harrington said. “The bill is misguided and it jeopardizes the health, safety and welfare of D.C. residents.”
Cheh said the concerns are unfounded.
“All the bill does is attempt to regulate a business so that it doesn’t use inhumane methods of trapping,” she said. “If you understand this bill, then you shouldn’t oppose it.”
