Bobcats were nearly hunted to extinction by the mid 1900s. They were finally listed as endangered species in Indiana in 1969, and hunting them has been banned ever since. That protection helped them rebound, but conservationists don't believe their recovery is complete and now what little progress has been made could be seriously jeopardized.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wants to open a hunting and trapping season and has proposed a rule that would establish a bag limit per hunter, along with a statewide quota.
Conservationists, however, are opposing the plan arguing that it's nothing more than commercial exploitation that will benefit a small interest group, that there's not enough data to support the idea that the state's bobcat population wouldn't be decimated by a hunting season, and they're also strongly opposed to the use of barbaric and indiscriminate steel-jaw leghold traps, Conibear traps, and snares that should have no place anywhere.
According to the DNR, bobcats have not posed any type of serious threat to us, our pets or livestock, and bobcat advocates argue there are other non-lethal means of dealing with any potential problems.
Please sign and share this petition urging the Natural Resources Commission not to allow a hunting and trapping season for bobcats in Indiana.
