{"id":328557,"date":"2026-08-24T18:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328557\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:06:10","slug":"otters-may-be-back-in-the-bronx-river-but-its-still-legal-to-kill-them-in-new-york-state-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/328557\/","title":{"rendered":"Otters may be back in the Bronx River, but it\u2019s still legal to kill them in New York state | Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your report on the river otter\u2019s return to New York City\u2019s Bronx River after a century\u2019s absence (19 August<\/a>) is genuinely wonderful news \u2013 proof that patient ecological restoration works. 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<\/a>, sometimes over 1,100, killed in body-gripping and leg-hold traps designed to crush, hold, drown or kill by force. Otters are recognised as an indicator species \u2013 their presence signals genuine ecosystem health. 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<\/a> in the first place. 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.
Peter J McKosky
Licensed wildlife rehabilitator, New York state <\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your report on the river otter\u2019s return to New York City\u2019s Bronx River after a century\u2019s absence (19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-328557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}