Official Site of the National Trappers Association
Official Site of the National Trappers Association

National
Trappers Association

Protecting Wild Things and Wild Places

Defending Our Heritage

We Are Committed

To defend and promote the safe and ethical harvest of furbearing mammals and to the preservation and enhancement of their habitats.

We Encourage

The development and usage of the most effective and humane trapping techniques available.

Education
Education
Top name trappers provide demonstrations at each convention to help trappers of all ages improve their trapping techniques.
Research
Research
The reintroduction of the otter in the U.S. is an example of the partnership between trappers and wildlife managers.
Legislation
Legislation
The NTA lawyers & lobbyists assist many states with introduced legislative bills which are detrimental to trappers.
View Your State
Your State
Click the map to view what's happening in your state. Most are affiliated with the NTA helping us all work together.
Highlights of the 2019 National Trappers Association Convention

Trapping Facts

Trapping Facts
Quick Facts About Trapping

There are more wild furbearers in the United States today than there was 100 years ago.
There are no furbearing animals in the United States or Canada which are endangered or threatened by fur harvesting today.
Millions of North Americans depend on fur harvesting for their livelihood. These people have a vested interest in protecting the natural environment.
Nothing is wasted in the production of a wild fur garment. Furbearers provide food, organic fertilizer, medicines, and other biodegradable products.
Conversely, synthetic materials exhaust our limited supply of oil and other non-renewable resources.
Sound wildlife management programs ensure the necessary supply of natural wild fur for today's needs and those of tomorrow
About NTA

The National Trappers Association is committed to defending and promoting the safe and ethical harvest of furbearing mammals and to the preservation and enhancement of their habitats.
Fifty-one state trapping affiliates make up the core of the national organization representing thousands of fur harvesters from every portion of the country. The National Trappers Association and its members continue to research and encourage the development and usage of the most effective and humane trapping techniques available.
Furbearers, like other managed wildlife species, thrive and are far more diverse today then 100 years ago. The reintroduction of the river otter throughout America’s river systems is just one example of the successful partnership between trappers and wildlife managers.
The National Trappers Association continues to defend our American Heritage and the sound management of all wildlife for the future enjoyment and use by all sportsmen of North America.
We thank all members and organizations for their dedicated support.
Destroying the Myth
This NTA produced video explodes the heart of the anti-trapping strategy by exposing it as false. Click video to view.
Membership Specials
The NTA offers special membership campaigns throughout the year. Join with us to help preserve our heritage.

Visit our Advertisers

Cumberland's Northwest Fleming Traps Funke Trap Tags Fur Hat World Fur Source
Glacier Wear Hilltop Outdoor Supply Kaatz Bros. Lures Mark June Lures Minnesota Trapline
Montgomery Fur Murray's Lures Northern Trapping Papio Creek Schmitt Enterprise
Sheepskin Town SKF Fur Trapper's World Volker's Trapping Supplies Wildlife Control Supplies
Moyle Mink & Tannery
Snake River Trappers
Upper Snake River Trappers of Idaho

NTA Director
Mike Murdock
1130 E 1800 N
Terreton, ID 83450
T: 208-716-0377
E: mikemurdock95@gmail.com

Interaction

In a world where humans interact with wildlife habitat in countless ways, management of certain animal populations will always be necessary. Uncontrolled, many species can infringe on real human needs. We may only think of rodents or insects in a grain storage facility to appreciate the need for action.

Renewable Resource

Some countries including Canada and the United States, are fortunate to still have vast undeveloped lands and plentiful wildlife. The "surplus" produced by most wildlife species each year represents a valuable natural renewable resource for people living on the land in these countries.

Regulated Trapping

Regulated trapping helps to smooth out the "boom and bust" cycles which characterize some wildlife populations when Nature is left to do the managing. Government quotas and strict conservation practices keep wildlife, including furbearers, at optimum levels.

Urban Challenges

Parts of the world, like Western Europe, are now so heavily urbanized that the main challenge for conservationists is to protect what little is left of wildlife habitat. Even in these countries, however, wildlife must be managed. In Holland and Switzerland (often cited as places where trapping has been discouraged), state employees must now be paid to trap and shoot muskrats which are seriously damaging dikes, canals and riverbanks. Uncontrolled muskrats are capable of astounding rates of reproduction: females can produce more than twenty young each year, while females born in the first Spring litter may produce their own young by Fall.

Population Control

In many areas, animal populations must be controlled to protect human activities: bears destroy beehives; coyotes kill livestock; wolves prey heavily on young moose, deer, and caribou which local people depend upon for food and income; raccoons raid cornfields; hungry deer and elk ravage winter-stored hay; foxes, mink and weasels have a taste for domestic poultry; beavers can flood farmland and roadways.
Trapping remains an important wildlife management tool.

Disease

Wildlife can also serve as a reservoir for diseases (like rabies and tularemia) which are potentially dangerous to humans. Beaver and muskrat can suffer horribly for weeks before finally succumbing to tularemia or other infectious diseases. (Foxes with rabies also take weeks to die.) Natural, yes, but hardly "humane".
Household pets are susceptible to many diseases which can be acquired from infected furbearers. By removing population excesses which promote diseases such as canine distemper, trapping can reduce and even stop the spread of a disease outbreak.

Interaction

In a world where humans interact with wildlife habitat in countless ways, management of certain animal populations will always be necessary. Uncontrolled, many species can infringe on real human needs. We may only think of rodents or insects in a grain storage facility to appreciate the need for action..

Renewable Resource

Some countries including Canada and the United States, are fortunate to still have vast undeveloped lands and plentiful wildlife. The "surplus" produced by most wildlife species each year represents a valuable natural renewable resource for people living on the land in these countries.

Regulated Trapping

Regulated trapping helps to smooth out the "boom and bust" cycles which characterize some wildlife populations when Nature is left to do the managing. Government quotas and strict conservation practices keep wildlife, including furbearers, at optimum levels

Interaction

In a world where humans interact with wildlife habitat in countless ways, management of certain animal populations will always be necessary. Uncontrolled, many species can infringe on real human needs. We may only think of rodents or insects in a grain storage facility to appreciate the need for action.

Renewable Resource

Some countries including Canada and the United States, are fortunate to still have vast undeveloped lands and plentiful wildlife. The "surplus" produced by most wildlife species each year represents a valuable natural renewable resource for people living on the land in these countries.

Regulated Trapping

Regulated trapping helps to smooth out the "boom and bust" cycles which characterize some wildlife populations when Nature is left to do the managing. Government quotas and strict conservation practices keep wildlife, including furbearers, at optimum levels.

Interaction

In a world where humans interact with wildlife habitat in countless ways, management of certain animal populations will always be necessary. Uncontrolled, many species can infringe on real human needs. We may only think of rodents or insects in a grain storage facility to appreciate the need for action.

Renewable Resource

Some countries including Canada and the United States, are fortunate to still have vast undeveloped lands and plentiful wildlife. The "surplus" produced by most wildlife species each year represents a valuable natural renewable resource for people living on the land in these countries.

Regulated Trapping

Regulated trapping helps to smooth out the "boom and bust" cycles which characterize some wildlife populations when Nature is left to do the managing. Government quotas and strict conservation practices keep wildlife, including furbearers, at optimum levels.

Urban Challenges

Parts of the world, like Western Europe, are now so heavily urbanized that the main challenge for conservationists is to protect what little is left of wildlife habitat. Even in these countries, however, wildlife must be managed. In Holland and Switzerland (often cited as places where trapping has been discouraged), state employees must now be paid to trap and shoot muskrats which are seriously damaging dikes, canals and riverbanks. Uncontrolled muskrats are capable of astounding rates of reproduction: females can produce more than twenty young each year, while females born in the first Spring litter may produce their own young by Fall.

Population Control

In many areas, animal populations must be controlled to protect human activities: bears destroy beehives; coyotes kill livestock; wolves prey heavily on young moose, deer, and caribou which local people depend upon for food and income; raccoons raid cornfields; hungry deer and elk ravage winter-stored hay; foxes, mink and weasels have a taste for domestic poultry; beavers can flood farmland and roadways.
Trapping remains an important wildlife management tool.

Disease

Wildlife can also serve as a reservoir for diseases (like rabies and tularemia) which are potentially dangerous to humans. Beaver and muskrat can suffer horribly for weeks before finally succumbing to tularemia or other infectious diseases. (Foxes with rabies also take weeks to die.) Natural, yes, but hardly "humane".
Household pets are susceptible to many diseases which can be acquired from infected furbearers. By removing population excesses which promote diseases such as canine distemper, trapping can reduce and even stop the spread of a disease outbreak.
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National
Trappers
Association

Protecting Wild Things
and Wild Places

We Are
Committed

To defend and promote the safe, ethical harvest of furbearing mammals and to the preservation and enhancement of their habitats.

We
Encourage

The development and usage of the most effective and humane trapping techniques available.