To the editor:

After attending county commissioners’ meetings and reading letters in the Bulletin, it is evident that a lot of people are still confused about trapping and other wildlife laws.

A 1975 Session Law, House Bill 744, prohibits the possession or use of a “steel trap of any kind” in Polk, Rutherford and Cleveland counties. It also allows for two exceptions:

1. Landowners may trap on their own land

2. One may trap on land they have leased for agricultural purposes.

Those who question why there are only two licensed trappers in Polk County may not understand that N.C. Wildlife laws allow anyone to hunt, fish or trap on their own land without a license.

Many letters to the Bulletin and comments at the Feb. 4 commissioners’ meeting were based on information from the Humane Society of the U.S. and PETA. These are two of the most extreme animal rights organizations in the world. Their goal is to totally ban hunting, fishing and trapping of any kind. PETA rented billboards in eastern North Carolina several years ago, to tell people not to fish because “Fish have feelings, too.” They tell people not to kill mice in their homes, but catch them in a live trap and release them in the wild, unharmed.