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By Brenna Galdenzi
It shouldn’t have to come to this. Why does it take Protect Our Wildlife (POW), an all-volunteer Vermont nonprofit, to petition Vermont Fish & Wildlife to get them to protect Vermont’s imperiled wildlife? Fish and Wildlife is well aware that the fisher population is in danger due to rodenticide poisoning and other threats, however they still allow a recreational trapping season with no limit on the number of animals that may be killed. According to their own data, the population is trending downwards.
The Fish and Wildlife furbearer biologist, Brehan Furfey, testified before the Senate Agriculture committee in February 2024 concerning rodenticide. You can view her brief testimony on POW’s YouTube page at the 42 second mark where she states that all of the fisher samples tested positive for rodenticide poisoning. Despite this, in addition to the recreational trapping season, Fish and Wildlife also allows year-round killing of fisher and other animals labeled as “furbearer” species under the dangerously permissive “wild animals causing damage” statute, title 10 V.S.A. §4828.
A POW Board member, who also has a Masters in Conservation Biology, spent the last few months analyzing data and took a deep dive into the issue. She shared her findings in a report that she submitted to the Fish & Wildlife Department and Board (the report can be found on Fish and Wildlife’s website). There is no green-washing the issue: 100% of fisher recently sampled tested positive for rodenticide poisoning.
The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is a carnivorous forest-dwelling mammal native to North America. It is a member of the Mustelid (weasel) family and is closely related to the American marten, an endangered species in Vermont. Traps that are set for fisher also place protected marten in direct danger (which is another reason to stop the trapping of fisher). A trap set for fisher cannot differentiate between the intended target and a look-alike species, the marten.
Fisher are a vital predator species who perform an outsized role of keeping small mammal and rodent populations in check. They are an important contributor to healthy ecosystems. There is no biological imperative to kill them. There is, however, empirical evidence to protect them.
The petition will be heard on Wednesday October 16th at 5pm. Will Fish & Wildlife seek to downplay the threats and obfuscate what is a clear decline in population or will they take this opportunity and reach across the aisle and do what is right?
Brenna Galdenzi is President of Protect Our Wildlife (POW) and is a resident of Stowe
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Categories: Commentary
The subject of this commentary is eclipsed by you, and organizations such a POW, sticking you liberal/progressive/socialist noses in other peoples business. Liberals are constantly working to make more rules and pass more laws that infringe on other peoples rights. Look at the sorry condition the State of Vermont is in thanks to the strangle hold the libs have on the state legislature. And I highly doubt that the number if fisher cats trapped puts a dent in the population.
Libs / Socialists don’t know what a trap is, yet want to control people that do. Take a Libs / Socialist to a trap and have them stick a finger in it to see if it’s set. I have a relative that traps Fisher cats. Gave him permission to trap on my land. He gets a few and sells the hide, perhaps to help pay his taxes. He moved out of VT in winter free Alabama. Good timing, his property taxes went up 14% via the law makers thinking about their voters.
My bleeding heart is spent when it comes to these creatures.
Last I knew, fisher cats also get rabies, as this article reports:
https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/fisher-cats/
Does the POW know that fishers were brought in to Vermont to keep the porcupine population in check? Think it was back in the late 70s early 80s. Rodents wouldn’t be laced with poison if the damn state had listened to F&W about not composting in towns and villages throughout the state. I have accidentally caught several fishers in have a heart traps right in the City of Essex jct.
because of the composting we had so many rats; they were being hit in the road. Now the rats are gone after having a massive poisoning program, but because of the stupidity of our legislators pushing composting; who knows how many animals were also poisoned or ate poisoned animals: including fisher. If the Fishers were out in the woods they wouldn’t be getting poisoned, but many come to the easy food in the areas that attract things they can eat;and those rodents came in to the smell of compost.The POW should get the heck out of Vermont and stop pushing their liberal crap on everyone else.
Do they know fishers will kill house cats. Them sticking their self righteous noses in everything is totally infuriating.
I’m not a fan when the kill all my chickens and you certainly don’t want to get attacked by one so trap all you want I say.
I suggest that haughty human beings continue in exterminating virtually every single creature in the forest, as people have already done to dozens so far over the past 150 or so years. Alter the ecosystem and then whine about how the ecosystem isn’t properly balanced, so it requires more altering!!!
Kill for the sheer joy of killing. And then claim to be Christians or even Catholics who go to services at churches with names such as St Francis of Assisi.
And let me guess that the same impoverished trappers who are supposedly paying their taxes with the proceeds of selling the skins of God’s creatures (as they are referred to in both the Old and New Testaments) are also paying to send their youngsters to college with the funds amassed, or maybe clothe them in the most modest of attire from thrift store 50% off sales while maw heats up some days-old soup made from vegetables salvaged from the local soup kitchen cast offs.
Oh, and exactly how many poor Vermonters have been brutally mauled by Fishers in merely the past five years alone again? Give us a break.
Go POW. Everyone knows residents of all political parties and all socio-economic levels donate to your cause in spite of the propaganda VDC loves providing a forum for —— with much more to come once some poster dares to offer a different viewpoint. Just enjoy below!!!
It has only been because of the comments here alone that we are going straight to your website to donate. Animals are far superior to people. Especially when it comes to sheer intellect. Comparatively speaking of course.
Mr Henry, your post is classic
coyotes are sweet wee canids that when they come upon a lamb cannot help themselves but eat the yummy soft liver; hoping in their canid way that the next night there might be another lamb. vultures do not care one way ‘tother. nature be nasty in tooth and claw, ’twas thus, is thus, will be thus.
Brenna Galdenzi Interesting article, being concerned about the Fisher Cat. Please do your homework. The Fisher Cats were introduced in the state to control the Porcupine population that was decimating trees mainly the Hemlock. The state had a bounty on them at $0.40. However, the Cats being in nature, went after easy pray, rabbits, Partridges, squirrels, house cats, dogs and such and reduced the wild population greatly, hard to see them anywhere now. So your priority seems to be the predator animal and not the defenseless. Totally misguided.. You must be a new arrival to VT along with Mr. Henry. There are many traditions in VT, going back to it’s founding. You’re not about to change them. I could say more about this side of the argument. Another side is the the joy of fishing. Desirous to comment on that and shut that sport as well??? As stated in this article The name Fisher Cat is wrong, it’s not a Fisher or Cat but ” a member of the weasel family, it has a close relationship with the martin, and sometimes it is called a fisher martin, and at other times just a fisher”.
From the Rutland Herald, article gives in depth info and history about this weasel
https://www.rutlandherald.com/features/weekend_magazine/vermonts-fisher-cat/article_f5d0d1ad-4b66-55b5-b5e3-080b08e880f9.html
Not going to change your thinking, but it should give you more info to make judgements. Thank you for your enlightenment.
To those who like to use the term fisher cats, they’re not cats and it’s not part of their name, they’re just plain fishers likely taken from the French word for polecat “fichet”, there’s that word cat again. They are one of the larger mustelidae of which badger, skunk, weasel, mink,marten, otter and wolverines belong to, and I’ve probably missed some. They’re pretty impressive predators, I’ve never successfully trapped any in season, but have a caught a few out of season in fox sets, always an exciting adventure releasing them, and watching them bound away unharmed with no limp, gimp or injury as POW would have you believe. I have trapped and killed several chicken killing mink, the last one I cornered in the coop and killed with my welding glove clad hands. Mink, I think they’re the sneakiest, nastiest of the bunch. At least a fox comes for chicken dinner and takes only one (at a time), mink and coons kill everything with no plan for what to do with it, and they say us humans only kill for sport, hmmmm…….
About a month ago I got up and went to the kitchen sink for a cup of water. As I looked out I did a double take. Is that a rabbit out there? It was indeed a cotton tail rabbit. First on I have seen in many many years here. I saw it again a couple days later. Then that nite I heard a bunch of coyote calls and have not seen any rabbits since. The invasive species has once again wiped out the rabbits in this area.
The fisher shall LIVE!!!! A beautiful, intelligent species that NO man (if one calls insists upon calling oneself a man who partakes in primal fascination and sickening jubilation from ravaging and mutilating and torturing and killing mammals of the wild) and who attempts to annihilate all kinds of species which comprise the ecosystem & it’s delicate balance —- only to then exclaim “that canids have “wiped out” all rabbits from Vermont” —– the MOST common wild species wherein most variations reproduce and repopulate at a prolific rate. Such fact-based reporting and commentary assuredly.
Trappers – the most ruthless, compassionless, and merciless creatures of the hominid genus who though not requiring sustenance for survival will wantonly kill for twisted pleasure, rage against those of the majority who decry their villainy, and revel in their distain of animals whom God has created & the acts of a simpleton they so enjoy.
When Jesus asked his disciples to cast their nets to the other side – was that entrapping an innocent creation of His father? Luke 5:4-11 But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.
Or what about this?
“There were two mandatory sacrifices in the Old Testament Law. The first was the sin offering. The purpose of the sin offering was to atone for sin and cleanse from defilement. There were five possible elements of a sin sacrifice—a young bull, a male goat, a female goat, a dove/pigeon, or 1/10 ephah of fine flour. The type of animal depended on the identity and financial situation of the giver. A female goat was the sin offering for the common person, fine flour was the sacrifice of the very poor, a young bull was offered for the high priest and the congregation as a whole, and so on. These sacrifices each had specific instructions for what to do with the blood of the animal during the ceremony. The fatty portions and lobe of the liver and kidneys were given to God (burnt); the rest of the animal was either totally burned on the altar and the ashes thrown outside the camp (in atoning for the high priest and congregation), or eaten within the tabernacle court.”
Fishers, coyotes, pedos, criminals, and perverts – protecting predators of all types is how the liberals roll. If the predator is looking to kill, maim or destroy you, your pets, your stock, other wildlife, or your propery – they will be protected by our grubberment and non-profiteers. A fisher mangled a few of my pets, a coyote dined on a few others – their lives don’t matter apparently.