Your report on the river otter\u2019s return to New York City\u2019s Bronx River after a century\u2019s absence (19 August) is genuinely wonderful news \u2013 proof that patient ecological restoration works.<\/p>\n
But it sits uneasily alongside a fact rarely mentioned: New York state still permits the trapping and killing of hundreds of river otters every year, purely for recreation.<\/p>\n
State wildlife data shows an average annual toll of around 900 otters, sometimes over 1,100, killed in body-gripping and leg-hold traps designed to crush, hold, drown or kill by force.<\/p>\n
Otters are recognised as an indicator species \u2013 their presence signals genuine ecosystem health.<\/p>\n
There is no overpopulation crisis and, with the fur trade in serious decline, barely an economic rationale left. What remains is the recreational interest of a small minority of trappers.<\/p>\n
It was this same unregulated trapping that nearly eliminated otters from New York in the first place.<\/p>\n
We shouldn\u2019t celebrate a species\u2019 recovery in the Bronx with one hand while permitting its violent killing elsewhere in the state with the other.<\/p>\n