Public Attitudes Toward and Awareness of Trapping Issues In
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ATTITUDES TOWARD AND AWARENESS OF TRAPPING ISSUES IN CONNECTICUT, INDIANA AND WISCONSIN Conducted for the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies And the Furbearer Resources Technical Work Group Conducted by Responsive Management May 2001 ATTITUDES TOWARD AND AWARENESS OF TRAPPING ISSUES IN CONNECTICUT, INDIANA AND WISCONSIN May 2001 CONDUCTED BY RESPONSIVE MANAGEMENT NATIONAL OFFICE Mark Damian Duda, Executive Director Peter E. De Michele, Ph.D., Director of Research Steven J. Bissell, Ph.D., Qualitative Research Director Ping Wang, Ph.D., Quantitative Research Associate Jim Herrick, Ph. D., Research Associate Alison Lanier, Business Manager William Testerman, Survey Center Manager Joy Yoder, Research Associate 130 Franklin Street, PO Box 389 Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Phone: 540/432-1888 Fax: 540/432-1892 E-mail to: [email protected] www.responsivemanagement.com EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Executive Overview of Findings, Implications and Conclusions The purpose of this project was to assist the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA) and the Furbearer Resources Technical Work Group in better understanding public awareness of, opinions on, and attitudes toward trapping. There were five phases to this project. Phase I was a series of focus groups with members of the general population in Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Indiana (Chapter 1). Phase II consisted of focus groups with two important stakeholder groups: Wildlife professionals (Chapter III), and Veterinarians (Chapter 1). Phase III consisted of utilizing the focus group results to develop a comprehensive group of questions regarding the most salient issues related to public opinion on, and attitudes toward trapping. These survey questions formed the basis of the development of three separate survey instruments that can be used by wildlife agencies to periodically assess attitudes toward trapping on a local, state or national level (Chapter IV). The three surveys designed include a baseline survey, a trends survey, and questions that could be included in an omnibus survey. The baseline survey is the most comprehensive survey and was designed to provide an agency or organization with a comprehensive baseline level of knowledge regarding public attitudes toward trapping. This instrument was designed to be used in the initiation of a project with the goals of better understanding public opinion on and attitudes toward trapping and communicating the benefits of trapping to the public. The trends survey is a subset of the baseline survey and was designed to monitor public opinion on, and attitudes toward trapping. This trends survey could be used at periodic intervals (2-3 years) to monitor public opinion. The omnibus survey is a further subset 2 Responsive Management of the trends survey and was designed to allow an agency to keep abreast of public opinion on trapping on an annual basis or when budget constraints limit the amount of information that can be collected. Phase IV of this project consisted of administering the full baseline survey in three pilot states: Connecticut, Indiana and Wisconsin (Chapter III) (The survey instrument used in the pilot states can be found in Appendix A). Phase V consisted of identifying the most salient issues regarding the public and trapping in this Executive Overview in order to provide the IAFWA, Furbearer Resources Technical Work Group and the state fish and wildlife agencies with 1) An overview of public opinion on and attitudes toward trapping and 2) The implications of this research for developing effective outreach programs to best communicate the benefits of trapping and increasing public support for trapping. Public Opinion on Trapping The survey results in this study suggest that the public may be shedding some of its highly negative opinions on trapping. In this study, 73% of Wisconsin residents, 68% of Indiana residents and 58% of Connecticut residents approved of regulated trapping. Although not directly comparable because of locale and specific question wording, a study conducted in 1994 indicated that nationwide, 34% of Americans approved of trapping while 59% disapproved (Duda et al. 1998). In Illinois in 1994, 22% of Illinois residents approved of trapping while 71% disapproved (Duda et al. 1998). These findings should not be construed as the public becoming strongly supportive of trapping, but rather that the public may be becoming less negative towards trapping. Caution should be exhibited in interpreting these results. First, the quantified survey in this study was not Attitudes Toward and Awareness of Trapping Issues 3 national in scope, but was administered in three pilot states: Connecticut, Indiana and Wisconsin. While the results from Wisconsin and Indiana may not be that surprising given the more rural nature and historical experience with trapping in these Midwestern states, the support for trapping -- at least lower than expected levels of opposition -- in the more urban, Northeastern State of Connecticut, may hint at a fundamental shift in public opinion on trapping. The second caution in interpreting the results of this study as a shift in public tolerance of trapping is that this study placed trapping within the context of, and under the purview of, the state fish and wildlife agency, a factor that was identified in this study as an important variable related to favorable attitudes toward trapping. Finally, this study used the term “regulated” trapping, another variable that was identified in this study that was correlated to positive opinions on trapping. Nevertheless, the overall results of this study indicate that the public appears more supportive, and less opposed to regulated trapping in Connecticut, Indiana and Wisconsin than past studies (that are not directly comparable) have indicated. There are several possible reasons for this potential shift in public opinion on trapping. The first is the increasing abundance of wildlife inhabiting suburban and urban areas. The focus groups indicated an enhanced awareness of an increased presence of wildlife and the problems they can cause, especially in urban and suburban areas. The telephone survey indicated that more than one-third of respondents had experienced problems with wildlife in their neighborhoods or around their home, such as raccoons getting into garbage cans and garden and lawn damage. The second possible reason may be due to an overall decrease in the amount of anti- trapping information that is being disseminated to the public by animal rights organizations. During the past few years, animal rights organizations have taken on numerous additional animal 4 Responsive Management rights causes, including anti-fishing campaigns and others, and there is the possibility that the overall amount of anti-trapping information has been decreased as these organizations have shifted their focus and resources to other animal-rights-related causes. In the survey, only a small minority of respondents had seen or heard any advertising, information or news coverage that showed negative things about trapping (12% in Wisconsin, 7% in Indiana and 16% in Connecticut). Statistical analyses indicated that there was a significant difference between those respondents who disapproved of trapping versus all other respondents in the total amount of negative information about trapping they had seen or heard within the past year. The third reason the public may be shedding some of its highly negative opinions on trapping may be due to increased public awareness that bans on trapping in some states have led to an overabundance of wildlife and an increased number of wildlife-related problems. As one focus group respondent noted, “One thing in Connecticut that you’re going to see happen is like what they did in Massachusetts. They banned trapping on beavers and they’ve got a real problem in Massachusetts and now the State is spending $2 million a year trying to regulate beaver problems. You don’t have problems like that here because we allow trapping in the state.” The fourth possible reason may be due simply to a more tolerant attitude among the public toward trapping or at least a shedding of the highly negative views of trapping that have been identified in past research. Overall this study hints that the public may have become slightly more tolerant of trapping. However, because past research is not directly comparable, definitive statements on this possible trend cannot be made. The lack of comparability of survey research points out the importance of a regular public opinion monitoring system using a standardized survey instrument administered using the same methodology at regularly scheduled intervals. Attitudes Toward and Awareness of Trapping Issues 5 The Big Picture Any understanding of public attitudes toward trapping must recognize the three underlying fundamental issues regarding public attitudes toward trapping: • The public cares deeply about America’s wildlife resources; • The public does not take lightly the killing of animals; • The public is highly uninformed about trapping. Literally all of the findings in this study come down to these three underlying “truths” regarding public attitudes toward trapping and virtually all of the findings in this study come down to one or more of these core fundamental issues. Any assessment of the public regarding attitudes toward trapping must take these core issues into account and any communications campaign designed to increase public support for trapping must keep in mind these three fundamental