Published on March 11, 2020

After a series of public meetings, the City of Bath is moving forward with a trapping plan to reduce the population of rabies carrying species within the city. USDA Wildlife Services, in conjunction with the city of Bath and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, has begun implementing the program, which will end by March 30. A summarized report of the program will be available once USDA Wildlife Services compiles the data, likely by the end of June. USDA Wildlife Services, MDIFW and the city of Bath would like to remind all that the traps will be monitored, and Maine law prohibits disturbing the traps of another; and also prohibits interfering with hunting, fishing or trapping:

Title 12 Sec 10654:  Harassment of hunters, trappers and anglers—A person may not intentionally or knowingly interfere with the lawful hunting, fishing or trapping of a wild animal, wild bird or fish. (Civil Violation)

Title 12 Sec 12256:  Disturbing traps of another—A person may not disturb or take a trap or a wild animal from a trap, other than that person’s own trap, without the consent of the owner of the trap, except that a landowner or occupant of land that the landowner or occupant is legally entitled to possess may remove any trap found on the land if permission has not been granted under section 12253 (Consent to trap), subsection 1 or 2 or the person has not obtained a written permit from the landowner to trap on that landowner’s land with cage-type traps within ½ mile of the built-up portion of a city or village. (Class E Crime)
 
An FAQ document containing answers to questions posed about the trapping program was published on March 13, 2020, and is available here.