Hello fellow wildlife advocate,
Sadly, the Indiana Natural Resources Commission (NRC) is allowing the trapping and slaughter of 250 bobcats using leghold traps and strangling snares. This is devastating news of gratuitous wildlife torture and slaughter. There is still action to be taken. Please read the email correspondence below from Story Warren of the Humane Society of Indiana. I hope you can attend the webinar next Thursday, continue to share this petition, and at least post a comment on this terrible rule on the NRC's website. When you share the petition, please encourage readers to post comments on the NRC's website as well. You may also attend the meeting about this rule on November 14th in Butlerville, IN (details below). I am hoping to be in attendance.
Hello Hoosier bobcat advocates,
The Humane Society of the United States will be hosting an informational webinar on Thursday, October 24, at 7 pm Eastern Time. Please join Samantha Chapman and myself to discuss the history of bobcats in Indiana, bobcat biology and ecology, and how you can help prevent the trapping of Indiana’s bobcats. This webinar is free and open to the public, so please share the registration link on social media and with your networks! https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/5641fa6f-0d76-4914-9767-d6b1f06305aa@a119b0d7-37fa-4e79-8983-282454f153b3
Also a reminder that the Indiana Natural Resources Commission (NRC) is currently taking written public comments on their proposal to allow the trapping of 250 bobcats using leghold traps and strangling snares. Thank you so much for those of you who have already submitted comments and alerted your networks.
The public will have the opportunity to comment in-person on November 14th at the NRC’s meeting in Butlerville. We believe that overwhelming public turnout at this meeting is our best chance at reducing the bobcat quota to zero. Please mark your calendars and bring your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Please let us know if you have any questions about the public comment process! We will also walk you through this process during our webinar.
Details for the NRC meeting: Purdue Agricultural Center located at 4425 East 350 North, Butlerville, IN 47223, from 5-7 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 14, 2024.
We are also hoping to get momentum for bobcat support on social media! Please take a photo with your cat or dog with the hashtag #IndianaCatsforCats or #IndianaDogsforCats. Have your pet pose with a piece of paper that says something like “Not one bobcat deserves to suffer cruel trapping” or “Wild or domestic – cats deserve compassion. Indiana NRC: Adopt a bobcat quota of ZERO” or “Traps and snares are dangerous for pets and wildlife. Don’t allow hundreds of bobcats to be trapped in Indiana.”
Along with the photo, you can post the following paragraph:
“I value Indiana’s bobcats alive and thriving. A proposed rule would allow a quota of 250 bobcats to be brutally trapped or strangled in snares across 40 Indiana counties. Traps and snares are inhumane and dangerous to wild animals and pets alike. Bobcats are a shy, recovering native species and are ecologically important as rodent control. I submitted my comment respectfully asking the Natural Resources Commission to adopt a quota of ZERO bobcats. I am asking my friends and neighbors to do the same at this link under “Bobcat Amendments:” https://www.in.gov/nrc/rules/rulemaking-docket/ and to attend and speak at the NRC’s November 14th meeting: https://events.in.gov/event/natural-resources-commission-seeks-input-on-proposed-bobcat-trapping-rules
Thank you all!
Story
Story Warren
Program Manager, Wildlife Protection
Pronouns: she/her
(541)604-5104
swarren@humanesociety.org
humanesociety.org