live market?

[~ADC~]

I thought the regulations said your catch must be released or killed and reduced to your possession or something along those lines or something about not possessing live animals but I can't find it in there in this years regulations. I must be overlooking it somewhere...

[medicdano]

I have never read anything about catch having to be dispatched since I moved back. I know there are live buyers in Iowa, but I don't know who.

[muskrat72]

Dec 27, 2013 21:46:53 GMT -6 ~ADC~ said:

I thought the regulations said your catch must be released or killed and reduced to your possession or something along those lines or something about not possessing live animals but I can't find it in there in this years regulations. I must be overlooking it somewhere...

Good question.

[medicdano]

The catch has to be removed immediately when discovered. Is that the regulation you are thinking of?

[medicdano]

Your question intrigued me so I did a little digging. Iowa Code 717f addresses wild/dangerous animals. Coyote and fox are included in that classification. It states that no person can possess wild animals, but there is an exemption for hunters/trappers. Lots of other verbiage that is a little confusing for a non-lawyer, so asking somebody like your CO or another DNR official may be the best thing.

I have always wanted to look into the live market, I'm just not set up cage wise for it. But I think I will call the DNR next week and find out.

[~ADC~]

Perhaps it was just a proposed change that never made it but I sure thought it was in there a couple years back.

[~ADC~]

Dec 28, 2013 11:02:45 GMT -6 ~ADC~ said:

Perhaps it was just a proposed change that never made it but I sure thought it was in there a couple years back.

This is just what happened. It was proposed (see quote below) but it was never made into a rule...

CHAPTER 110, TRAPPING LIMITATION NOTICE OF INTENDED ACTION REGARDING THE EFFORT TO STOP THE LIVE WILD ANIMAL (PRIMARILY COYOTES) TRAFFICKING
Ron Andrews, Fur Resource Specialist
Iowa DNR

This notice of intended action would require trappers to either release animals immediately or to euthanize them immediately.

As stated in your Commission agenda in March the Rationale is a follows: Currently a few trappers are keeping animals alive to sell to Coursing Pens for the training of dogs. The proposed change would not allow wild furbearers to be kept in captivity. The main concern is that transporting live wild animals around the state and across state lines makes it more likely that diseases could be spread and transferred to either other wildlife, domestic pets or livestock, and perhaps humans. Viruses can be particularly difficult especially if the mutate and as y ou are aware pandemic can occurs from such mutations.

Several states to the South and East do allow the live animal market to exist and while there are regulations associated with those state allowing such. They are sometimes difficult regulations to enforce.

Besides the disease concerns, one of our biologists noted several wild coyotes in a cage in the back of a pickup a few years ago and it was a rather disgusting sight to see how they were confined, very nervous, and not in the most sanitary of conditions. It just did not seem right to have them caged up in those kinds of conditions. We would guess that they were going to be delivered to a coursing pen for training hounds either in Iowa or Missouri.

Coursing pens are 40+ acre coyote proof fenced in areas where wild coyotes are released and later coyote hounds are turned loose inside these enclosures for training purposes. Most of them have artificial escape dens made of buried rocks, culverts and anything else appropriate. Good coursing pens are probably suitable for such hound training. Supposedly all coyotes released are given distemper, rabies, and any other needed vaccinations that most dogs required. Supporters of coursing pens believe
that their wild coyotes are healthier than their own hounds and that probably is true at least in many situations. The problem is the opportunity to spread disease is still present as they are translocated to other sites. We believe that there may currently be as many as 5 coursing pens already in place in Iowa but some are not fully established yet.

If one considers the possibility of spreading rabies, distemper or any other disease either in or out of Iowa, wild animal trafficking is not an appropriate model of North American Wildlife Management.

This notice of intended action rule would still allow for nuisance animals to be captured and released unharmed. The rationale for that is that most nuisance animals are captured within close proximity of the towns, homes, and humans in general, and immediately killing them could cause great consternation to the people have the nuisance problems. Of course releasing them would not resolve their problems. We also appreciate the fact that our Nuisance Control Operators help our department out by taking care of troublesome nuisance critters thus alleviating a lot of costs if we (the DNR) were compelled to take care of such problems.

Last but not least dog or hound trainers can still obtain animals from registered game breeders, however the problem is that they do not have but very few coyotes available. I do have some empathy for the coyote hound trainer but the concern over the spread of disease overrides my empathy in this case.

Regardless, disease is the overriding concern especially when you consider the possible mutations and other concerns for livestock and human health that not only could be a local problem but could become a world pandemic. With that said we would encourage you to approve this Chapter 11 notice of intended action into a final administrative rule.

Again, the DNR will take some heat on this action but we believe that we must error on the side of safety and Iowa and world health. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact Ron Andrews, Fur Resource Specialist at Cell # 641-425-5088 or at e-mail: [e-mail]

~ADC~

[muskrat72]

Thanks for the research

[~ADC~]

Jan 3, 2014 21:48:32 GMT -6 muskrat72 said:

Thanks for the research

I have a "guy" for that. He does good work!