Trap Tag I.D. passed

The law on tagging traps has been amended. (The Governor signed the legislation on July 30, 2010.)

This is good news - trappers may now use their DECALS Customer ID # on their trap tags instead of name and address (option for using either).

The way this will work in practice is that local law enforcement authorities will need to contact a DEC office so that we can access the DECALS data base to match the DECALS customer ID# with the person's name/address.

This eliminates the fear that someone (such as an anti-trapper) gets the trapper's address from the tag. This is possible because customer ID #s do not change - it's your # for life.

Note that the law specifies that name, address AND PHONE # be accessible to Law Enforcement. Up to now, including the phone # in DECALS has been optional. It will now be a required field (starting 8/16, when new licences go on sale). So, technically, it is only legal to use the ID # on traps if they have their phone # in the DECALS record.

Note, too that this one came too late for this year's Hunting/Trapping Guide, but we should do everything we can to get the word out to trappers.

Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 11-1105 of the environmental
conservation law, as amended by chapter 911 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
1. Traps set for taking wildlife shall bear the name and residence address OR THE ASSIGNED IDENTIFICATION NUMBER of the operator legibly at all times, PROVIDED, THAT STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES SHALL HAVE ACCESS TO THE NAME, ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER OF SUCH OPERATOR WHO WAS ASSIGNED SUCH IDENTIFICATION NUMBER. They shall be visited once in each twenty-four hours, except in the Northern Zone where they shall be visited once in each forty-eight hours or a shorter interval of no less than twenty-four hours as the department may, by regulation, require, and all wildlife held captive shall immediately be removed from the traps.

S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Details about the voting history of this bill are available on this web-site:

http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=S02622%09%09&Actions=Y&Text=Y