It is the sad paradox of wildlife conservation that as soon as a species seems to make progress toward recovery from near extirpation, some people rally to be permitted to hunt and trap them again. This is exactly what’s happening in Indiana right now with the state’s only remaining native wildcat, the bobcat.
Earlier this year, a small but powerful group of recreational fur trappers helped push a bill through the state legislature that forces the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to establish a bobcat-trapping season by July 2025. And last week, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources proposed that trappers be allowed to kill 250 of them using horrific methods including strangling neck snares and steel-jawed leghold traps, even though these small wildcats are only starting to return to their native habitats in Indiana’s woods. But there is hope: concerned residents of the state still have time to prevent even one bobcat from being killed.
The new law mandating a bobcat season allows the Department of Natural Resources flexibility in setting the quota of bobcats that can be legally killed—the agency can even set this number as low as zero.
The Natural Resources Commission will take public comments into account before making its final decision, and they can still decide to set the quota to zero. For that to happen, though, the Commission needs to hear from Indiana residents now. The public comment period for Indiana residents is open and can be accessed by clicking “Submit Comment Here” under Bobcat Amendments at NRC: Rulemaking Docket.
This is not the first time that hunting and trapping groups in Indiana have tried to force the hand of the state to allow the killing of bobcats, but wildlife advocates have always managed to resoundingly defeat these misguided proposals. We celebrated a win in 2018, after a proposal to open a bobcat season was completely withdrawn by the Department due to overwhelming public opposition that we mobilized with strong allies in the state. A bill to open a bobcat season similarly failed in 2019.
Unfortunately, Senate Bill 241 passed in March 2024. Bobcat sightings on trail cameras, were touted as being justification for a bobcat season; misinformation and fearmongering abounded. One proponent claimed that simply seeing a bobcat meant that there were too many, and others stated that bobcats were eating too many turkeys, despite research by the Department of Natural Resources that did not document any consumption of turkeys by bobcats.
Powerful hunting and trapping groups lobbied hard for the bill, but Indiana residents who care about wildlife showed up in force, too. In a particularly inspiring move, students from Bloomington Montessori School traveled to the capitol to visit their state representative, respectfully telling him that they value bobcats and don’t want to see them trapped and killed. These young advocates were able to change his vote. Sadly, though, SB 241 became law despite their efforts.