OPINION:
The Friday Commentary column by Gene Harrington critical of the D.C. Council’s pending approval of the Wildlife Protection Act (“D.C. Council drafts troubling wildlife act”) represents well the confusion and misunderstanding that has surrounded this initiative since its inception.
This bill is as much a consumer protection measure as it is a reasonable set of prescriptions aimed at reining in the worst and most unethical practices in the pest-control industry. It is irresponsible as well as misleading for wildlife-control companies simply to trap and kill animals and not perform exclusion work to ensure that homes are not reinvaded by the next passing squirrel or raccoon. The devices the bill would ban are those that cause incredible pain and suffering - the body-crushing and leghold traps and snares that have no place in urban wildlife control, if anywhere. The box or cage trap is allowed, and animals caught in those traps can be killed humanely.
The Wildlife Protection Act is a reasonable set of regulations that would bring a previously uncontrolled industry in the District into the ambit of professional and ethical services to the consumer.
JOHN HADIDIAN
Director, Urban Wildlife Programs
The Humane Society of the United States
Washington
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