Sportsmen who still cling to the notion that the Sierra Club somehow supports them should read the May 19 policy on trapping adopted by their Board of Directors. The full text can be seen here: http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/Trapping-Wildlife.pdf
But the key sentence is: “The Sierra Club considers body-gripping, restraining and killing traps and snares to be ecologically indiscriminate and unnecessarily inhumane and therefore opposes their use.”
Numerous types of fur-bearers from foxes to coyotes to raccoons prey on nests and young of gamebirds and livestock, in addition to creating conflicts with humans such as flooding caused by beaver dams or habitat devastation by nutria. And, in many economically depressed rural areas, trapping remains a viable source of income.
The Sierra Club claims to support “humane” solutions to human-wildlife conflicts but doesn’t specify what that would actually mean.
Among the Sierra Club’s other positions:
They opposed the use of lead shot for dove hunting in Iowa.
They opposed delisting of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and returning management to states, long after experts confirmed the wolves far exceeded their recovery goals.
They opposed badly-needed black bear hunting in New Jersey.
They opposed the expansion of black bear hunting in California.
The Sierra Club routinely claims its membership includes a large percentage of hunters. There is no telling how much truth, if any, there is to that claim, but any hunter who supports them is putting his contributions into anti-hunting and trapping action.
