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Bobcat Season Is Off: Fish And Game Withdraws Hunting, Trapping Proposal

Emily Hoyer
/
Flicker CC

New Hampshire Fish and Game officials have reversed course on plans to allow a state bobcat season.

The department announced on its website Wednesday that it had withdrawn the proposal "in consultation with the NH Fish and Game Commission."

The plan to authorize fifty permits to hunt and trap bobcats had faced vocal public opposition.

And this month a legislative committee which reviews rules proposed by state agencies objected to the plan, saying bobcat traps could harm Canada lynx, a threatened species. Fish and Game Executive Director Glenn Normandeau says with this kind of disapproval, the plan simply couldn't go forward.

"We were very confident about our science and the numbers of cats that are out there and whatnot," Normandeau says. "But obviously there was a large contingent of people who didn't want anyone to have a season on hunting them."

The Fish and Game Commission gave initial approval to the bobcat season in February.

New Hampshire has not had bobcat hunting or trapping since 1989, though the practices are legal in both Maine and Vermont. 

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