Editor:
I have been following, or trying to follow, the discourse concerning the drafting of a bylaw designed to ban the use of particularly savage traps subjecting helpless creatures to protracted excruciating pain, injury and/or death.
That several domestic pets have already been caught in these deadly contraptions emphasizes the creeping boundaries of residential areas into wildlife environs and animal-trapping habitats - not surprising, since the Coast population has been steadily increasing. Commensurately, residential development has, for a long time, deprived wildlife from accessing many of their former food sources.
I believe an issue of urgent importance - to protect the safety of everyone (together with pets) who enjoys outdoor exploration - is to ban the use of traps within the District of Sechelt.
I would therefore urge our mayor and council to follow the example of Gibsons and other municipalities who have sensibly (and compassionately) enacted bylaws to protect its citizenry and to anticipate that there will be, from time to time, nuisance and dangerous animals too close for comfort, and to deal with those on a case-by-case basis.
Dorothy Guskin, Sechelt
