Pet-friendly trapping reforms gain traction in Wyoming Legislature

Chris Folsom was about 8 miles into a trail run early this January when a sharp snap interrupted his outing on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.

It was a sound Folsom was familiar with. He grew up around traps. And it was loud — so loud, he initially thought maybe he’d set off the device himself while striding down the trail outside of Laramie. 

Screams from Folsom’s canine companion, Rora, quickly clarified who had triggered the foothold device. Its metal jaws hit a vein on the husky mix’s lower leg, making for a dramatic scene. 

“There was a lot of blood initially, which really freaked me out,” Folsom recalled. 

Folsom tried unsuccessfully to disengage the trap’s levers. Fortunately, he was in view of a trailhead, and waved a couple onlookers over. Working as a team, they calmed Rora and successfully released the trap’s jaws, freeing her paw. 

In the aftermath of the incident, Folsom was struck by the trap’s whereabouts: 256 feet from the trailhead (he measured the next day). There was also barely any separation between the trap and the surface of a regularly-traveled trail on public land. 

“It was less than a foot off of the trail,” Folsom said. “My dog was off leash at the time, but even if she was on a leash and heeling right next to me, she could have easily still hit that.”

An email about the situation to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department yielded another surprise: the foothold trap’s location was indeed legal. A warden would encourage the trapper to “think a little bit more” about the wisdom of trapping along a trafficked trail, Folsom was told.

“But there wasn’t anything they could do beyond that,” he recalled, “because there are no formal regulations about putting a trap that close to the trail.” 

The Wyoming Legislature is now considering changing that. 

On Thursday, a Wyoming legislative committee voted 6-0 to advance a bill, “Senate File 139, Trapping requirements-licenses, seasons and setbacks,” that would give the Wyoming Game and Fish Department the authority to create no-trapping zones in heavily recreated areas, like near trails, campgrounds and roads. 

The measure’s primary sponsor, Sen. Dan Dockstader, a Republican from Afton, said the proposal recognizes that it’s no longer the settlement era. People, he said, are moving to places like Wyoming because they love the outdoors, and they like to have their pets in tow.

“I take my pet, a Golden Retriever named Cheyenne, and we walk those canyons out west,” Dockstader told members of the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. 

“I know Wyoming is very much [about ] hunting, fishing, trapping and all that,” he added, “but maybe a few adjustments [would help] make sure at least the family pets are kept safe.” 

Dockstader’s proposal is co-sponsored by Rep. McKay Erickson, a fellow Republican from Afton. The bill comes at the urging of a constituent, Becky Barber, who a year ago lost her bull terrier, Jester, to an illegal Conibear-style trap set near Swift Creek Road, a popular winter recreation area outside of Afton that accesses the Periodic Spring. That wasn’t the first time a Star Valley local lost a dog to a near-town trap in recent years: The same thing happened in 2018. 

Barber traveled to Cheyenne to recount her experience to the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife Committee members last week. 

“As I struggled to free him and I watched the color drain from his gums,” she tearfully testified, “I promised him his death would not be in vain.” 

She concluded by urging the committee to advance SF 139 and a companion bill, Senate File 40, “Trapping education requirements.”

The latter measure would have required younger trappers (born on and after January 1, 2000) to receive a “certificate of trapper education,” but it died on Thursday after no committee members motioned to advance it. Sen. Bill Landen, a Republican from Casper, suggested that the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife Committee, which he chairs, may address the education requirement after the Legislature adjourns from its general session.

“The issue is not gone,” Landen said. “We’ll just take it up as we move through this year, perhaps.” 

No lobbyists or members of the public testified in outright opposition to either bill, though some asked for amendments. 

Jim Magagna, lobbying for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, expressed concern about the state creating no-trapping setbacks on private land. Lawmakers listened, amending the bill to make it specific to public and state land. 

Lisa Robertson, founder of the group Wyoming Untrapped, testified that the push for reform has been ongoing for a dozen years. Mostly, requests for regulation and statute changes have gone unanswered: The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and Wyoming Legislature have both declined to restrict trapping.  

“The resistance to change has been challenging,” Robertson said. “But extensive statewide education, advocacy and awareness are changing this. We are finding solutions that can work for everyone, and more and more trappers are finding this to be true.” 

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The only active trapper who testified Thursday argued the companion bills didn’t go far enough. Jamie Olson, who identified himself as a “full-time predator control trapper,” asked for required signage that could alert recreating members of the public to trapping activity. 

“The setbacks are fine,” Olson said, “but an individual still doesn’t know for sure if that particular trailhead actually even has traps on it.”

Still-alive SF 139 — the setback bill — was one of the 14 trapping-related recommendations that emerged from a collaborative Wyoming Game and Fish Department-led stakeholder group that met back in 2020. 

“Our commission recommended the department look into these and consider getting the statutory authority to do what these two bills do,” Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce testified last week.

There are still quite a few steps in the legislative process before the Wyoming Game and Fish Department could be granted that authority. On Monday, however, SF 139 passed its first reading on the floor of the Wyoming Senate — meaning the measure has cleared its first two hurdles.