Help Stop Violent Death Sentence for Woodchucks at Connecticut Prison

“I never thought that I’d have a conflict with the department over my feelings about animals, and then I look out my window and see them being beaten to death. It’s emotionally draining for me to try to do my job while this is going on.”
—Unnamed correctional officer, Carl Robinson Correctional Facility

Whistleblowers at the Carl Robinson Correctional Facility in Enfield, Connecticut, informed PETA that trappers are capturing woodchucks in cruel body-gripping traps, which are placed at the entrances to the animals’ dens. The trappers then bludgeon the animals who survive these traps before stuffing them—while they are still alive—inside plastic bags.

A Connecticut Journal Inquirer article quoted one inmate as saying, “[The animals] are being barbarically slaughtered with giant rat traps that are put into the entrances of their dens…. Eyewitness accounts of smashed heads and still-alive bloody pups, struggling with eyes bulging [and] taking their last breaths, are commonplace. Why can they not be trapped humanely and relocated to another home instead of being slaughtered? This attitude is indicative of the collective mentality of the Department of [Correction].”

Conibear traps are so cruel that they have been banned or restricted in 11 states. Often, these traps—which apply 90 pounds of pressure per square inch—don’t kill their victims immediately but leave animals to struggle in terror for hours, suffering from lacerations and internal injuries. Not only do the woodchucks who are caught in these barbaric traps suffer, their nursing babies will slowly starve to death after their mothers are killed.

PETA’s urgent appeals to Connecticut Department of Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz offering advice on a humane, effective woodchuck-control program were flatly rejected. The Connecticut Department of Correction’s letter to PETA makes clear that the woodchuck population will continue to be tortured and cruelly killed at the prison.

Please urge the Connecticut Department of Correction to remove the traps and halt the trapping program immediately. Encourage the Department of Correction to accept PETA’s offer to work with the department to implement an effective, humane woodchuck-control program that everyone can live with, including the woodchucks.

Please send polite comments to:

Theresa C. Lantz, Commissioner
Connecticut Department of Correction
24 Wolcott Hill Rd.
Wethersfield, CT 06109
860-692-7481
860-692-7483 (fax)
theresa.lantz@po.state.ct.us

Public Information Office
860-692-7780
860-692-7783 (fax)
doc.pio@po.state.ct.us

EA8752