The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has an opportunity to show Idahoans that it’s on their side.

    Everyone who’s studied the issue knows that Idaho’s trapping regulations need big changes.

    Fish and Game would win a lot of friends and definitely save some canine lives (and possibly some human ones too) if it listened to the calls for more trapping restrictions.

    At present, a trap can be placed within 5 feet of the center of any maintained public trail. If the trail’s not maintained, the trap can actually be placed in the middle of the path. 

    It’s amazing with these kinds of loose restrictions that humans have not been injured by traps and that we haven’t had a child killed. 

    It’s hard to believe that a family could decide to spend a weekend afternoon walking the City Creek Trail system and easily encounter a trap. And the placement of that trap on or very close to the trail would be perfectly legal. 

    This is one of the common sense issues that our government — in this case Idaho Fish and Game — could easily address. 

    However, all that Fish and Game has pushed thus far is more educational efforts to train trappers where and where not to place a trap. We question if education is the real issue if trappers can legally place a trap on or very near a public trail. 

    If you’re thinking about visiting a public campground, trailhead or picnic area, you need to be careful as well. Traps can be placed within 300 feet of any of these places. 

    With rules like this it’s almost like Fish and Game wants people and pets to get caught in traps. We know that’s not the case, but these trapping regulations are that woeful. 

    And all across Idaho we’re seeing the results of our meager trapping restrictions in the number of canines killed or injured after getting caught in traps on or near trails, and in some cases just a stone’s throw from residential neighborhoods.

    There have been three incidents in Eastern Idaho in recent months in which canines were injured by traps.

    Two of these happened in the Mink Creek area south of Pocatello, and the other was in Idaho Falls.

    Elsewhere in Idaho there have been similar incidents, the most horrific being the death of Loyal, a black Labrador retriever who was caught in a trap near Kellogg while out on a walk with its owners, including a 12-year-old boy. They all watched helplessly as the trap slowly killed Loyal.

    Idaho’s great outdoors are a magnificent gift to all of us. 

    However, Idaho’s weak trapping restrictions can turn the wonders of our wide open spaces into nightmares, and it’s only a matter of time before the casualty list from traps starts to include humans. 

    The ball is in Fish and Game’s court to show all of us that it’s a government agency with foresight.

    In 2012, Idaho voters made hunting, fishing and trapping a state constitutional right.

    But Fish and Game can and should do more to keep traps away from trails and neighborhoods.

    Trapping and 21st century Idaho just don’t mix.