A vocal opponent of trapping has reclaimed two trade names that a trapper had registered with the state of New Hampshire.

On Friday, Kristina Snyder holds the trade names NH Citizens Against Recreational Trapping and NH Citizens Against Trapping.

By the end of March, longtime trapper Joseph Paolilli had searched the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office for the trade names and finding no trace of them, had registered them. In a phone interview at the time, he said he planned to tell Snyder to stop using the names on Facebook and Twitter to promote his cause, which she has been doing for eight years.

Snyder consulted a lawyer, sued Paolilli, and a settlement became final on Friday.

(State law indicates that trade names must be acquired “in good faith”.)

“I’m over the moon,” Snyder said Monday. “It was an extremely stressful four or five weeks.”

Paolilli, who lives in Swanzey, NH, sent a brief statement Friday evening, saying he had stopped using the trade names. Reached Monday, he addressed questions to his lawyer, whom he refused to name.

The settlement ends an episode in the ongoing debate over trapping in Granite State. Snyder said it gave him momentum.

“In the long run, I think it really made me more determined with my cause,” Snyder said. “It shed light on what I’m trying to do.”

Paolilli’s registration of business names took place just as Snyder had purchased billboards and bus stop signs to advertise his campaign. On the advice of her lawyer, she kept the listings and continued to post on her social media pages.

She also created a GoFundMe page to help cover her legal fees. She raised approximately $ 4,000 in contributions.

Her legal bills so far total nearly $ 4,800, she said. She could have insisted in court that her legal bills be covered, but she preferred a quick resolution.

“I just wanted to get it over with,” she said.

But she was also willing to go to court, if that was the right thing to do. Snyder, a 49-year-old resident of Chester, NH, has been dedicated to this cause full time since 2015.

“I have the time and believe me I am using it,” she said. “Every day I get up and say, ‘What else can I do?’ ”

She said she had no ill will in Paolilli, that she should have registered the names earlier and that she wanted to move on.

She plans to start a non-profit company and a website under one of the names she has claimed.

Alex Hanson can be reached at [email protected] or 603-727-3207.