Upper Valley residents largely echoed statewide sentiment when it comes to the bobcat hunting debate in New Hampshire: it’s too soon, too risky or there are still not enough of the animals present to warrant reintroduction of hunting and trapping seasons.

New Hampshire Fish and Game initially planned to move forward with a proposal that would have issued 50 permits via lottery for trapping and hunting seasons in December and January, respectively. It withdrew the proposal two weeks ago amid widespread public opposition and an objection by the state’s Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, which cited federal protection of Canadian lynx populations that could feasibly be prone to inadverdent trappings, among other concerns.

NHFG Executive Director Glenn Normandeau called concerns over lynx trappings “frankly, a red herring” and said there are viable ways to set traps to prevent those incidents.

However, he said, there is no denying a significant portion of the New Hampshire public’s opposition to the idea of hunting bobcats.

Perhaps it stems from the mystique of the handsome felines or the belief, including among many hunters, that animals shouldn’t be killed without an intention to harvest their meat for food. Bobcat hunters and trappers typically either preserve the dead animals as trophies or sell their furs to overseas markets, particularly China and Russia.

“For whatever the reasons, a large number of people simply don’t believe we should be hunting bobcats,” Normandeau said. “But I’ll tell you it’s a social belief; it’s not coming from the science. As a department, we were very satisfied that the current bobcat population would be able to handle 50 permits. Only about 30 bobcats would probably have been taken (due to projected limited success rates) if they were issued.”

The culture surrounding bobcat hunting in New Hampshire has shifted mightily since the mid-20th-century, when they were spotted so often a bounty was placed on them because of their nuisance to farmers. Numbers eventually plummeted to around 200 statewide, prompting a ban on their killing or capture in 1989. 

A series of studies over five years conducted by NHFG — in conjunction with a University of New Hampshire wildlife management program, Normandeau said — produced current estimates of 1,100 resident adult bobcats, a figure the studies say doubles in the spring.

“Once those results came out, there was a subset of hunters and trappers who saw an opportunity to reopen bobcat hunting in the state,” Normandeau said. “They said populations were healthy enough and pointed to the fact that quite a few neighboring states and provinces (including Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts) have bobcat hunting. Our staff put together and approved a program that was quite limited while still allowing some access to this resource.”

Normandeau was surprised at the breadth of opposition expressed through written comment and at public hearings staged in Concord and Lancaster last winter. About three-quarters of the more than 500 attendees in Concord were opposed, and about two-thirds of the 125 or so in Lancaster were opposed, he said.

“We didn’t expect the extent of the opposition to be so intense, and I was surprised at the direction of where some of it came from,” Normandeau said. “There were various conservation groups that were opposed. We expected that, but there were also a number of hunters, particularly some who wrote in, saying it wouldn’t be a good idea for the image of the Fish and Game Department.

“Once JLCAR filed its objection, it would have been a real fight in the legislature if we moved forward with it; people would have been calling their state reps and senators,” the Fish & Game director continued. “We felt it would be in the best interest of the department to withdraw the proposal at this time.”

The threat of inadvertently trapping Canadian lynx is real, said Lindsay Hamrick, New Hampshire state director for The Humane Society of the United States. Hamrick cited recent lawsuits that have sprouted in Idaho and Minnesota over the issue. She also pointed out that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife halted all above-ground trapping in the northernmost half of its wildlife management districts two years ago, midseason, after a pair of Canadian lynx were killed in traps commonly used to catch fisher and pine marten.

Most Upper Valley residents surveyed, including hunters, said reintroducing bobcat hunting and trapping this year at the very least seemed premature.

Steve Patten, owner of Patten’s Sporting Goods in North Haverhill, said the consensus amid customers is that bobcats’ population figures aren’t quite high enough yet.

Piermont hunter Mark Robie put himself among those who prefer to hunt only animals he intends to harvest for meat.

“I tell my family and my children, ‘I only kill animals that I’m going to eat, or that are going to eat me,’ ” said Robie, who once encountered a bobcat while hunting grouse. “It’s an ethical decision. That being said, if it’s the livelihood of some trappers to harvest the pelts. … It’s one of those tricky things.”

Francis and Barbara Mutney said neighbors in their North Grantham neighborhood had recently told them of spotting a bobcat, but the couple hasn’t seen an enough evidence to be convinced the species is a nuisance or overpopulated. 

They were legitimate pests in 1950s and ’60s, Francis Mutney said. “There was a bounty on them because they were getting into all the farmers’ chicken coops,” said Mutney, 87. “I came across one once when I was hunting for partridge or deer. I shot at it, but it got away.”

Mutney still laughs at a friend’s experience during the bounty period. “He hit it with its car (by mistake) and said, ‘Jeesh, I might as well turn it in and get my $20 ,’ ” Mutney recalled.

“Well, it turned out the bobcat was only knocked out, so when he opened his trunk, he had a big problem. Talk about getting a tiger by the tail!”

Mike Lorrey, of Grantham, would support reintroducing a bobcat hunting and trapping season, he said, in part because of their lack of predators.

“When you don’t have top-level predators like mountain lions, your lower level predators and prey cause imbalances in the ecosystem,” Lorrey said. “You can have citizens participate in the management of these species (via hunting and trapping) or the state can spend thousands of dollars hiring people to do it.”

Lorrey predicts bobcats will increasingly become dangerous for children and pets in the Upper Valley’s rural neighborhoods. 

“People lose their dog or cat and they think, ‘Oh, they ran away.’ Sorry to say, but they didn’t run away, they were lunch. As there is more and more sprawl in this area to the more rural towns and wilderness areas, they’re going to be more dangerous for people.”

Matt Monaco, of Rochester, Vt., was surprised to learn Vermont has bobcat hunting and trapping seasons and said he was against reimplementing one in New Hampshire.

“To me, it’s fear-based. Too much as humans, our answer to things we’re afraid of is to shoot them,” Monaco said.

Doug Banks, a Moultonborough, N.H., native now living in White River Junction, feels bobcats are simply too graceful to kill.

“I came across one on a dirt road in Moultonborough once, and it was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Banks said. “Like all wildlife, they have a purpose.”

Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.