Dear

As a citizen of Pennsylvania who is concerned with saving the only wild cat remaining in our state, and thereby maintaining a balance in the environment, I ask you to vote for the legislation to prohibit hunting and trapping of Pennsylvania bobcats in the fall of 2000. Bobcats should be permitted to survive unharmed for the following reasons.

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1. For 30 years - 1970 - to present, bobcats were on a vulnerable list in Pennsylvania since prior to that they had been so overhunted and overtrapped.

2. Bobcats are the only wildcats left in Pennsylvania. Overhunting and trapping extirpated the Pennsylvania mountain lions and lynx.

3. Bobcats are not overpopulated. We don't have an accurate counting of them because they are so elusive and rarely seen
4. Bobcats don't threaten people -- they avoid people.

5. The American Veterinary Association has condemned the use of leghold traps to kill bobcats and other animals because they are so inhumane.

6. Leghold traps are vicious devices that grab an animal by the leg or face. Animals cannot get loose and sometimes chew off their own leg and bleed to death trying to get free. If animals don't sacrifice their own leg, it may take up to a week for them to die without food and water.

7. The European Community will not allow the importation or sale of animal fur which has been harvested from the use of leghold traps (because of the vicious nature of the traps).

8. Trappers who use leghold traps are obligated to check them every 24 hours so that trapped animals don't linger and suffer. Do they really check?

9. When trappers find an animal caught in their leghold trap still alive, the animal is either shot, clubbed, or stomped to death.

10. Hunters must pay for permits to hunt or trap bobcats, thereby increasing revenues for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The bobcat hunting and trapping plan is motivated by greed not environmental need.

11. Only 7% of Pennsylvania residents are hunters and/or trappers. The rest of us, 93% should have a 93%say in what happens to our state's wildlife.

12. An opportunity to "bag a bobcat" is no justification for destroying bobcats and the purpose they serve in nature.

13. As your constituent, I want you to vote for House Bill 2534 which grants a three year moratorium on bobcat hunting to give time for better studies on whether bobcats should be hunted or trapped at all.

14. Pennsylvania wildlife is a gift that should not be abused. Wildlife belongs to nature, not Pennsylvania hunters.

15. Bobcats prey on other animals in order to survive; therefore, they exist as a natural balancing force in the environment.

16. Bobcats consume mice as part of their diet. Mice are major carriers of deer tick (the tick causing Lyme disease in humans). Lyme disease is at epidemic levels in Pennsylvania, Bobcats help to control Lyme disease.Mice cause other diseases as well such as Hantavirus and Toxoplasmosis.

17. Since the lynx and the mountain lion are no longer in Pennsylvania we need to protect bobcat since bobcats, lynx and mountain lions perform similar controls in the environment.

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For those turncoat members of the House of Representatives who removed their names as supporters of this legislation, I have no respect (Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, Rep. Guy Travaglio, Rep. Frank LaGrotta, Rep. Susan Laughlin, and Rep. Nicholas Micozzie). For Gaynor Cawley and Lisa Boscola, I am deeply grateful. There should be no hunting or trapping when there is no justification for such an outrageous action. Leave bobcat fur on bobcats and let them live peacefully in Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,