Here is the e-mail that went out to WA trappers. It would help us out a lot to get as many comments against this proposal as possible.

On the 26th of March the F&W Commission will be presented the new proposed WAC on requirements for sealing pelts. The new proposed WAC will require you to turn in the lower jaw of bobcats to get them CITES tagged. Of course this will ruin the value of the skull. In recent years the value of skulls has become a significant addition to the value of the pelt so of course we would like to stop this.
If you have not already done so I would like to ask you to submit a comment in opposition to the passage of this WAC. If you want to submit a lengthy comment, that is fine but any comment in opposition is fine as long as it is respectful. Even a short comment shows the publics dissatisfaction with the passage of this rule.
You can comment by going to https://publicinput.com/3yearseasonsetting
If you have trouble with that link simply search for WDFW, scroll to bottom of their home page and click on rule making, on that page scroll to current rule-making activity and click on that, next page scroll and click on 2024-2026 Season Setting, on that page there is a link for the season setting public engagement page.
You should comment against this item in the Requirement for Sealing Pelts section.
Suggested arguments against: trappers lose the value of the skull, trappers and hunters lose a keepsake that is a valuable remembrance of their outdoor experience, there is an alternative in that a tooth could be submitted to accomplish the same goal, Bear and cougar hunters are able to submit a tooth to accomplish the same goal.
There is also a change up for comment in the Wild Animal Trapping section if you wish to comment. WSTA is not going to oppose this change.
Bruce Vandervort, Government Affairs
Washington State Trappers Association

Just a question, how does Washington State currently conduct bobcat research on the health of the population?

Basically they use information from the report of catch and CITES tagging. location, sex, age class, time of capture. There is some limited trap and release by DFW with a little more info taken.
WSTA has no problem with ageing the cats by tooth sectioning. We do think there is an alternative to taking the entire jaw in that a tooth other than the canine tooth can be extracted and used for ageing.

I would agree if all that is done is aging.

Here is this year's jaw collection info from the Wisconsin regs. Don't know about your season; here in Wisconsin we have two trapping periods.






In Wisconsin the jaw is used for far more testing.

I have been told by the Furbearer Bio that aging is all they want the jaws for but if they need tissue samples for some of the other testing that was mentioned in your post we would be happy to help out. We think there is a way to get whatever they need without losing the value of the skull.
Bobcat season in WA is Nov 1 to March 31, no limit. I'm sure at some point we will get hit with the antis petitioning to curtail cat trapping so we recognize we need as much data as possible to support management decisions.

TTT

When we take a lion the Game and fish take a back tooth and a piece of the pad for DNA, I would think that would satisfy their need for info. with B'cats?