LOS ANGELES : Council Bans Coyote Traps for 6 Months to Test Cages

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday banned for six months the use of steel leg-hold traps used to catch coyotes to permit testing of walk-in cages that animal rights activists say are equally as effective but more humane.

Lila Brooks, director of the California Wildlife Defenders, said after the 10-4 vote that she was “not very happy” that the city Department of Animal Regulation has been left to evaluate the effectiveness of the leg-hold traps. “I don’t trust them,” she said.

City animal regulation officials defended the devices, which are used to catch more than 100 coyotes a year in foothill back yards.

They contend that the traps, padded with rubber, do not threaten pets or children. To prove the point, during a council hearing earlier this year an animal control officer put his hand into one of the spring-loaded traps, which slammed shut with a bang. He then smiled.

Patricia Beaman, founding member of the newly formed Los Angeles County Bar Assn. Committee on Animal Rights, told council members: “For a 175- to 200-pound man to place his fingers or fist in a trap designed to hold a 17- to 22-pound animal is misleading.”