WSR 98-01-207

PERMANENT RULES

DEPARTMENT OF

FISH AND WILDLIFE

[Order 97-253--Filed December 23, 1997, 5:12 p.m., effective October 1, 1998]

Date of Adoption: December 13, 1997.

Purpose: To amend WAC 232-12-141 Wild animal trapping.

Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 232-12-141.

Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 77.12.040.

Adopted under notice filed as WSR 97-22-098 on November 5, 1997.

Changes Other than Editing from Proposed to Adopted Version: Subsection (4)(c), last sentence. Delete proposed change . . . "spread exceeding seven and one-half inches is lawful when set with the pivot point of the springs beneath the water surface."

Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0.

Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0.

Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 0, amended 1, repealed 0.

Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0.

Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, amended 0, repealed 0.

Effective Date of Rule: October 1, 1998.

December 22, 1997

Lisa Pelly, Chair

Fish and Wildlife Commission

AMENDATORY SECTION [(Amending Order 563, filed 9/2/92)]

WAC 232-12-141 Wild animal trapping. (1) The trapping season authorizes the taking of furbearing animals for their hides and pelts only. Furbearers may not be taken from the wild and held alive for sale or personal use without a special permit pursuant to WAC 232-12-064.

(2) Any wildlife trapped for which the season is not open shall be released unharmed. Any wildlife that cannot be released unharmed must be left in the trap, and the department of fish and wildlife must be notified immediately.

(3) Lawfully trapped furbearers must be lethally dispatched or immediately released. A firearm may be used for this purpose.

(4) It is unlawful to trap for wild animals:

(a) By any means other than padded foot-hold traps having a minimum rubber pad thickness of one-eighth inch, unpadded foot-hold traps, cage (live) traps, ((instant-))kill traps and snares.

(b) With an unpadded foot-hold trap, unless the trap has jaws with a minimum jaw face width of one-fourth inch, or the trap is set so that it completely submerses and drowns any trapped animal, except that unpadded foot-hold traps not meeting the one-fourth inch jaw face requirement may be used on non-drowning sets on private property with landowner permission for the purpose of protecting livestock, domestic animals, private property, or public safety.

(((b))) (c) With a steel trap having a jaw spread exceeding seven and one-half inches, except that a ((an instant)) kill trap having a jaw spread exceeding seven and one-half inches is lawful when set beneath the water surface.

(((c))) (d) On dry land, with a non-drowning set ((W))with a No. 3 size or larger unpadded foot-hold ((steel)) trap if it does not have jaw spacing of at least three-sixteenth of one inch when the trap is sprung, ((and when the set is not capable of drowning the trapped animal[.]))

(((d))) (e) With a ((No. 3 size or larger)) steel trap with teeth or serrated edges. ((when the set is not capable of drowning the trapped animal.))

(f) Unless kill traps, including foot-hold drowning sets, are checked and animals removed within seventy-two hours.

(((e))) (g) Unless traps ((or devices)) not capable of killing the animal are checked and animals removed within ((seventy-two)) forty-eight hours, except within identified urban trapping areas, where ((the)) sets ((is)) not capable of ((drowning)) killing the animal, ((traps or devices)) must be checked and animals removed within ((forty-eight)) twenty-four hours.

(((f))) (h) With a neck or body snare attached to a spring pole or any spring pole type of device.

(((g))) (i) Within thirty feet of any exposed meat bait which is visible to flying raptors.

[Statutory Authority: RCW 77.12.040. 92-18-083 (Order 563), 232-12-141, filed 9/2/92, effective 10/3/92; 90-19-097 (Order 460), 232-12-141, filed 9/19/90, effective 10/20/90; 87-15-082 (Order 293), 232-12-141, filed 7/20/87; 81-12-029 (Order , 232-12-141, filed 6/1/81. Formerly WAC 232-12-310.]

NOTES:

Reviser's note: RCW 34.05.395 requires the use of underlining and deletion marks to indicate amendments to existing rules, and deems ineffectual changes not filed by the agency in this manner. The bracketed material in the above section does not appear to conform to the statutory requirement.

Reviser's note: The bracketed material preceding the section above was supplied by the code reviser's office.