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Fox in a Leg-Hold Trap |
Trapping and Fur Facts -
Rarely are trapped animals
killed remotely quickly. The
majority of trapped animals die desperate, agonizing deaths.
What is “normal” on the
trapline is this: Traps are placed
where animals travel frequently, along creek beds, for instance or in trees.
Sometimes the trap locations are baited with urine or sex gland scents
that lure the animal to a certain trap.
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Fox in a Leg-Hold Trap |
The animal is surprised,
painfully gripped and restrained alive. Not
infrequently, the animal is clamped on a part of the body that is excruciatingly
painful –eg. On the head, even the eye, the muzzle, or the abdomen.
Trappers have a name for the phenomenon of animals chewing off their own extremities to
escape; they call it "wring-off". To the trapper, it means they have lost a pelt.
For the animal unable to break free, death is no kinder. Exhaustion and unconsciousness are the kindest possibilities, but there are other, grimmer modes of death in the trap. In Canada trap checking times vary from once every 24 hours to once every five days - and such laws
are really unenforceable. An animal who does not die quickly is faced with excruciating pain
and a desperately panic-filled wait.
The Three Main Traps in Use Today
1) The Leg-Hold Trap
2) The Conibear Trap
3) The Snare Trap
Each trap, and the particular way it is used, presents its own unique cruelty. Although it is encouraging that the number of animals trapped in North America per year has dropped from about 31-33 million down to about 6 million, there still is much work to be done. We can no longer look the other way. Millions of fur-bearing animals a year are depending on us!
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Leg-Hold Trap |
The Leg-Hold trap doesn’t
kill – it traps and holds the animal alive in cold steel jaws.
Pain is long… death is slow. Finally,
hunger, cold, exhaustion, or the returning trapper ends it all.
Fur-Bearer Defenders commissioned a poll by the prestigious Angus Reid Group in November 1996. This Angus Reid Poll confirmed that:
80% of Canadians oppose
the use of the Leg-Hold Trap!
The Leg-Hold trap is still
legal in Canada for the bobcat, lynx, wolf, coyote, fox, beaver, muskrat, mink,
and otter.
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Click here to take a look at our 3D interactive Leg Hold Trap! |
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Cat in a Leg-Hold trap |
In addition to the millions
of target animals trapped and sold for their pelts, there are also many more
“accidental” catches of animals whose pelts are not valuable.
And there are also animals whose pelts are damaged so badly by the time
the trapper returns, that they are not valuable enough to use.
Dogs and cats are frequent
victims of these cruel traps. Owls,
ducks, jays, porcupines, flying squirrels, rabbits, etc. are also caught. They are “unwanted” and are thrown away, or let free,
often painfully and sometimes fatally injured.
Some non-target catches are
even endangered species, such as eagles, badgers, or others.
Learn about the so-called “Padded”
Trap.
The Leg-Hold Trap is over 200 years old! It’s a terrible instrument of torture and has no place in society today.
“Padded” Trap? –
Don’t Be Fooled!
We call it the “Propaganda Trap”. The fur industry and North
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So Called "Padded" Trap |
American Governments call it the
“Padded” Trap, or the “Soft-Catch” Trap.
“Padded” or “Soft”,
it is not.
It’s a cruel steel-jawed
Leg-Hold trap. And it clamps
onto an animal’s leg with enough excruciating power to hold a desperate,
panicking wolf.
The only difference between a
“padded” trap and a regular steel jawed leg-hold trap is a thin piece of
synthetic material, stuck onto the powerful steel jaws.
You’ll hear that today’s
Leg-Hold traps have been “modified” for better animal welfare.
These “modified” traps, used and promoted by the fur industry and
governments are the “padded” trap, the “offset” trap and the “laminated” trap.
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A Lynx in "So Called" Padded Trap |
The “offset” trap is a
regular steel jawed leg-hold trap with a 3/16” gap between the closed steel
jaws.
The “laminated” trap is a
regular steel jawed leg-hold trap with extra steel added to the jaws to make
them slightly wider (thicker).
What a shameful, misleading
name game.
The Conibear Trap, seen in its development stage as a potential instant-kill trap, is now recognized as causing terrible suffering.
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Ermine in a Conibear Trap |
The problem is that the
Conibear does not work as intended unless the animal happens to be just the “right
size” for the size of the trap, come into the trap at the “right speed”,
and also from the “right angle”, etc. etc.
Rather than being an
instant-kill trap, it smashes down, clamping onto
various parts of the animal’s body, for example, the shoulder, neck, abdomen,
etc., where his agony will be unspeakable.
Even trappers refer to the
Conibear as "body-holding trap" or "body-grippers", in
recognition that it is not well described as a kill trap.
Conibears cause an unthinkable number of animals horrendous pain and suffering – a slow and agonizing death.
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The Sauvageau (Conibear-Type Trap |
In the majority of Canadian provinces and states, there is no time limit on when the trapper is required to return to check his Conibear trap.
This is because the Wildlife Departments continue to oddly classify Conibears as “quick-killing”.
Newer Conibear type traps such as the Magnum and the Sauvageau have the same basic design, and suffer the same basic problems.
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Wolverine Caught in a Snare |
It is a brutal, yet simple
trap. A wire loop encircles the animal’s body (leg, abdomen,
neck, etc.). As the
animal
struggles, the loop tightens… and tightens.
Sometimes the animal will slowly strangle himself, like this wolverine,
choking to death. Sometimes he will
suffer alive until the trapper returns to kill him.
Pole Snares
Snares are often used to catch squirrels. In many jurisdictions, several snares are attached to one suspended pole. The sound of one trapped squirrel attracts the others. There they hang, alive, dangling off the pole by their trapped body part until the trapper returns.
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