Wanton Waste
Protect Our Wildlife Led the Effort to Pass the Wanton Waste Ban in 2022. Read more here Read more HERE
Join our action alerts here and be a voice for wildlife in Vermont! If you have any questions about wanton waste, please email us at info@protectourwildlifevt.org
In VT Digger:
"Vermont Fish Wildlife commissioner falls short on promise to ban wanton waste in Vermont"
May 14, 2021
Read our full press release HERE
What is Wanton Waste?
In general, the term “wanton waste” describes behavior that intentionally wastes something negligently or inappropriately. With respect to hunting/trapping/fishing, if refers to killing, or attempting to kill, a wild animal and failing to remove that animal from the land and utilize it for a useful purpose , such as consumption of the meat or use of the fur.
Because our state’s wildlife is considered a public resource, behavior that results in wanton or needless killing of wildlife should be opposed by all Vermonters. In a 2017 poll conducted by University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies, 70.5% of Vermonters polled oppose wanton waste.
Wasteful killing happens year-round in Vermont. The evidence is in the piles of dead crows or coyotes killed for recreation or target practice and left to rot where they died.
Wanton waste clearly violates the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation’s prohibition against the casual killing of wildlife for reasons other than food and fur, self-defense and property protection.
A retired Vermont game warden asked the Fish & Wildlife Board to enact rules to prohibit wanton waste and the Board chose not to act. Read his letter here.
This wanton waste is compounded by an open, year-round season on coyotes and no bag limits for coyotes, bobcats, fisher, otter, mink, weasel, red fox, gray fox, muskrat, beaver and other furbearers. As a result, there is no disincentive in law or regulation to discourage the potential killing and discarding of these species.
Wanton waste clearly violates the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation’s prohibition against the casual killing of wildlife for reasons other than food and fur, self-defense and property protection.
The failure to remove killed wildlife from the land also creates problems for other wild animals by allowing bodies that are often riddled with lead bullet fragments to be consumed by raptors and other wildlife, exposing them to the deadly effects of lead poisoning.
In 2009, a survey of Vermont game wardens revealed that "hunters and anglers are not consistent in their efforts to retrieve fish and wildlife.” The Department estimated that as many as 60 to 100 wanton waste events occurred each year — many of which are very apparent to the public. In response, the Department supported the enactment of a rule against wanton waste, but it was blocked by the Fish and Wildlife Board. Still, the Department expressed support in their most recent 2017-20 Strategic Plan for programs to ensure “ethical harvest techniques are employed to ensure animal welfare and preclude the wanton waste of fish and wildlife resources.”
Exemptions!
Wanton waste does not include landowners or municipalities who kill wildlife in defense of property under title 10 V.S.A. §4828 or in defense of person. It only covers the hunting or trapping of a wild animal with no intent to use that animal for fur, meat or taxidermy.