| With groups such as PETA and HSUS, trapping is becoming an engdangered pastime. In talking to the general public about trapping, it is obvious that there are a lot of misconceptions about the sport. Due to the media many people have an image of trapping that is incorrect. They envision huge steel traps with razor sharp teeth, and animals being left in them to suffer a lingering death. This couldn't be further from the truth. In almost all states, traps with teeth are no longer legal to use. Most states also enforce a 24 hour trap check. Today's traps are made as humanely as possible. They are used as a means of catching animals for purposes of scientific study as well as for relocation. Two of the most popular instances of steel traps being used for relocation are the river otter and the timber wolf. Trappers caught these animals in there native area, and they were taken unharmed from the trap and relocated to the new area.
In the past month alone I have read in the news of two seperate instances of a fox attacking a child. In one, the neighbor was feeding the foxes, and they became overly bold, and attacked a two year old girl. The other, a rabid fox attacked a group of children in a sand box and a 5 year old boy tried to prevent the fox from attacking his younger sister. He was bitten before his step-dad killed the fox, and had to undergo painful rabies shots. I do not recall what state this latter event was from, but the former happened in Colorado, a state which has for the most part outlawed trapping.
When animals are not kept in check by hunting and trapping, they over-populate and when that happens, mother nature takes over. Diseases such as rabies, distemper and mange run rampant. If you don't think the diseases are a much crueler form of death than trapping, then email me for photos of coyotes with mange. After mange robs them of all their fur, they usually die of exposure or hypothermia.
Coyotes, wolves and mountain lions do tremendous damage to livestock and game animals. Last fall we trapped a farm where a farmer lost over half a dozen sheep to a few killer coyotes in a couple weeks time. Beaver due costly damage as well, chopping down timber, plugging culverts, and causing millions of dollars in crop damage by flooding farmers fields.
So why do people still trap? It surely isn't for the meager money that pelts bring now a days. I have trapped since i was seven. What keeps me going back out in the fields and woods year after year isn't a illusion of wealth, it is a love of the animals. There is no other feeling so fine as walking up to a trap you carefully set to find a coyote or fox there waiting for you. People think trappers are cruel, and surely must hate animals. That couldn't be further from the truth. I love the animals I trap. I love being out there in nature, no matter the weather, closer to God, and matching wits with the critters. |
