KENTUCKY ACTION ALERT

The Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) is proposing new regulations for Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (NWCOs), which The Fund for Animals strongly opposes!

Animal removal, or "critter ridder" type services, need to be regulated and monitored to ensure humane treatment of wildlife being removed from chimneys and other residential nesting sites as well as farming facilities and commercial properties. However, the current KDFWR draft regulations are inhumane for many reasons:

• The KDFWR, in conjunction with the Kentucky Houndsmen Association, plans to allow NWCOs to sell captured animals directly to hunters to be gunned down or brutally maimed or killed by hunting hounds. (Incredibly, the Houndsmen Association was actually invited to be a part of the panel drafting the new regulations, while The Fund for Animals and other wildlife protection groups were excluded!)

• NWCOs are not required to inform property owners that the animals captured may be killed at all, much less by extremely inhumane means, including drowning or injection of acetone into the animals. The proposed regulations contain absolutely no guidelines regarding humane euthanasia of captured animals.

• NWCOs are not limited to using humane traps, giving them license to use devices such as snares, leghold traps, and body-crushing type traps. Animals can be held by trappers for up to 30 days, with no guidelines on holding pen size or humane treatment.

• NWCOs will only be allowed to release animals on private lands of over 300 contiguous acres, decreasing the likelihood of animals being released, and increasing the number of animals killed by the NWCOs.

CALL AND WRITE GOVERNOR PATTON and KDFWR COMMISSIONER BENNETT TODAY!

Ask them to cancel the proposed KDRWR proposed Nuisance Wildlife Regulations and instead adopt humane NWCO regulations. Tell them that the new regs need to have euthanasia guidelines provided by the American Veterinarian Medical Association. Also include your support of The Fund for Animals being included on the advisory committee formulating new wildlife control regulations. Finally, let them know that a very high percentage of wildlife problems can be eliminated by some very simple public education, which ultimately will save homeowners huge amounts of money and prevent problems from reoccurring.

Governor Paul Patton
100 State Capitol
Frankfort, KY 40601
Phone: (502) 564-2611

Commissioner Tom Bennett
KDFWR
#1 Game Farm Road
Frankfort, KY 40601
Phone: (502) 564-3400

ALSO CALL AND WRITE REPRESENTATIVES WHO WILL REVIEW REGULATIONS!

The following Senators and Representatives are part of the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee which reviews proposals from the KDFWR. We must put pressure on them to throw out these regulations!

Representative John Arnold, Jr.
1301 North Lee
P.O. Box 124
Sturgis, KY 42459
Office Phone: (502) 333-4641

Representative Woody Allen
3750 Gilstrap Rd.
Morgantown, KY 42261
Home Phone: (502) 526-5149

Senator Richard Roeding
2227 Grace Ave.
Fort Mitchell, KY 41017
Home Phone: (606) 331-1238

Representative James Bruce
6750 Ft. Campbell Blvd.
Hopkinsville, KY 42240
Home Phone: (502) 886-2422

Senator Nick Kafoglis
1008 Newman Drive
Bowling Green, KY 42101
Home Phone: (502) 843-4127

Representative Jimmie Lee
1500 North Dixie
Elizabethtown, KY 42701
Office Phone: (502) 737-8889

Senator Joey Pendleton
905 Hurst Drive
Hopkinsville, KY 42240
Home Phone: (502) 885-1639

For more information contact:

The Fund for Animals
233 W. Broadway
Suite 407
Louisville, KY 40202
Phone: (502) 587-0508
E-Mail: fund4animals@fund.org

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