If ever there was a device that is the very definition of animal cruelty it’s leghold and other body gripping traps. Each year, both targeted and not targeted animals get their limbs caught in these indiscriminate body-gripping traps from which they struggle to escape by tugging or chewing off a leg or paw. Beavers caught in Conibear traps suffer from crushed bones while they drown.

What’s the need for these traps, where animals suffer from crushed bones and ripped tendons before death? How deploring this exists in a state that is known for its progressive values. It’s time to outlaw these medieval-era torture tools and support bipartisan bill, HR 6014, before the state legislature.

The number of trappers purchasing state licenses represents a fraction of the population at just 500 and a nominal amount of revenue for the state Department of Energy…