Residents of Brigantine, NJ claim the Fish and Wildlife Services have been seen at the north end of Island setting snares to catch male foxes while the vixens are in the den with kits; therefore, mother and pups starve while waiting for the male who is not coming back to return with food. This has been happening for some time now and all efforts by citizens have gone on deaf ears. The red fox is a well-known inhabitant of the barrier island but also a predator of the piping plover, a species that nests on the island's dunes. In a controversial decision in 2016, the New Jersey Game Council allowed the use of "foot encapsulating" traps, which opponents say fit the description of the steel-jaw traps banned in New Jersey since 1984. Some residents claim they have seen traps, snares, or even poisoned foxes....but one thing is for certain...most of them are gone from the island. We, the tax paying citizens, deserve to have a voice in the decision making process rather than it being hidden from us until all the foxes have been killed. We deserve the right to be part of the solution. The DEP contracts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to trap and shoot the foxes and by law, traps are supposed to be checked every day to minimize suffering...which in itself is an admission to suffering. Since the killing of the foxes there has been an issue of field rats which has been growing rapidly.
