Maine
Background
The State of Maine licenses trappers who take, subject to state law, a variety of furbearers. Lynx are a protected species and listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). On occasion, a licensed trapper mistakenly captures a lynx, the vast number of which are released unharmed. A coalition of activists sued the State of Maine, arguing that since Maine licenses the trappers and some lynx are harmed or killed by licensed trappers, Maine has violated provisions of the ESA prohibiting taking or harming lynx.
Sportsmen’s Alliance joined the case on behalf of Maine sportsmen and trappers and worked hand in glove with Maine’s trappers (and in cooperation with the State of Maine and eventually FWS) over a 12-year period that continues today. It turned out Sportsmen’s Alliance joined a series of cases – a trilogy, in fact.
Impact to Trappers
If Maine were found liable under the federal law, the state might choose to stop issuing trapping licenses.
Verdicts
We settled the first case in 2007 after defeating Plaintiff Animal Protection Institute’s motion for summary judgment by asserting a difficult causation argument that Defendant State of Maine understandably did not assert. This was at a time when the consequences of potentially losing at trial were grave. The Consent Decree continued trapping in Maine with some restrictions designed to reduce injury to lynx that might be accidentally trapped.
The second case, filed by Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in 2008, was litigated to a judgment in favor of the State of Maine and the Sportsmen’s Alliance after a five-day trial. AWI appealed that judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where we won an important published precedent (Animal Welfare Institute v. Martin) that holds that federal judges are not required to enter an injunction in each and every case where there might arguably be a technical violation of law.
We won the third case, in which Plaintiff Friends of Animals (FOA) sought a judgment overturning a permit granted by FWS that allows Maine’s trappers to trap without fear of personal liability if they accidentally catch a lynx. We worked with FWS and the State of Maine to win a judgment that FOA had failed to prove that trapping in Maine would put Maine’s lynx at risk of extinction.
Trapping remains under challenge in Maine. We are examining the health of the lynx population and the possibility that lynx numbers are high enough that the population in Maine or more broadly should be removed from the list of threatened species.
The Maine lynx cases are an example of Sportsmen’s Alliance’s willingness to work patiently over the very long term for the benefit of a small but vulnerable segment of our hunting, fishing, and trapping community. We know that the activists will come first after the most vulnerable in our community, such as trappers. Defending our entire community effectively requires defending its most vulnerable members. Rather than chasing headlines and 30-second sound bites, Sportsmen’s Alliance has litigated three extensive lynx cases in Maine to conclusion over 12 years, each time obtaining full-party (defendant-intervenor) status. This has included hiring expert witnesses and participating in extensive discovery and trial hearings.
Minnesota
We assisted Minnesota’s trappers in similar litigation involving Canada lynx and trapping. There are fewer lynx in Minnesota than in Maine, so there was only one installment of litigation. That Minnesota lynx case ended similarly to the first Maine lynx case – trapping continues with some restrictions, under a judicial decree roughly similar to the Consent Decree in Maine.
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