Unless a severe blow to the head or some
psychopathic disorder has rendered them incapable of feeling empathy for
others, anyone who witnesses the harrowing ordeal suffered by an animal caught
in a leg-hold trap should be appalled and outraged that trapping is still
legal in a society that considers itself civilized. The continuation of this
horrid, outdated practice in a country governed by the people suggests that
either most folks have brain damage, or they are simply unaware of the
terrible anguish and desperation a trapped animal goes through.
They must never have heard the cries of
shock and pain when an animal first feels the steel jaws of a trap lock down
onto his leg. They must never have looked into the weary eyes of a helpless
victim who has been caught in a trap for days and nights on end. They must
never have come across a leg that an animal had chewed off in order to escape
a deadly fate, nor stopped to think how tormented and hopeless one must be to
decide to take that desperate action. And they must never have seen an animal
struggling through her life on three legs. (To
enlarge the photo of the lynx leg, click on the photo or link)
I have had several heart-wrenching
experiences with the gruesome evils of trapping. On a walk near our home in
Eastern Washington, my dog, Tucker, stepped into a steel-jawed, leg-hold trap
that clamped down onto his front paw, prying his toes apart. He cried out in
terror and frantically tried to shake it off, biting at the trap, at his paw,
and at me as I fought to open the jaws of the trap. It continued to cut deeper
into his tender flesh and my efforts caused him even more pain, but after many
tortuous minutes, I was finally able to loosen the cruel device enough for him
to pull free.
Another dog I freed was caught in two
leg-hold traps. One was latched onto her front leg, while the second gripped
her hind leg, forcing her to remain standing for countless, interminably long
hours. Judging by how fatigued and dehydrated she was, she had been trapped
there for several days. The sinister traps caused so much damage that a vet
had to amputate one of her injured legs.
With no other hope of escape and feeling
vulnerable to anyone that comes along, many trapped animals resort to
amputating their own leg. Trappers callously try to downplay this grim act of
despair by giving it the innocuous knick-name, “wring off.” But if they do not
bleed to death or die from infection, these animals spend the rest of their
lives crippled and possibly unable to keep up with a demanding life in the
wild. (To enlarge the
photo of the lynx leg, click on the photo or link)
Unlike the fictional character “Little
Big Man,” who was distraught to the brink of suicide when he found that an
animal had chewed off it’s leg to escape one of his traps, most trappers who
find a “wring-off” are indifferent to the suffering they caused as they
discard the chewed-off limb and mindlessly reset their trap.
While we were camped near Bowron Lakes
Provincial Park in B.C., Canada early last April, my dog found just such a
discarded limb--the front leg of a lynx. In the ultimate betrayal of trust,
animals protected in parks are fair game for trapping on the lands immediately
outside park boundaries. Trappers consider those lands adjoining parks to be
the most “productive,” and will pay tens of thousands of dollars for
trap-lines in these areas. I have seen three-legged coyotes near the North
Cascades National Park, and within the Grand Tetons National Park. Though it
is considered a crime to trap inside those parks, it is perfectly legal to set
traps right outside the boundaries of these meager protected lands.
(To enlarge the photo
of the lynx leg, click on the photo or link)
Sidestepping the indisputable cruelty
issue, pro-trapping factions try to perpetuate the myth that trapping is
“sustainable.” But time and again entire populations of “furbearers” are
completely trapped out of an area. The winter after I found wolf tracks in
Katmai National Monument on the Alaska Peninsula, all seven members of the
pack of wolves who had found a niche in and around that park were killed by
trappers. Though they are extinct or endangered in most of the U.S., 1,500
wolves are legally trapped in Alaska each year.
Leg-hold traps are now banned in 88
countries, and some enlightened states have passed voter-approved initiatives
to outlaw trapping. But in many U.S. states, as in Canada, the twisted
tradition is not only legal, it’s practically enshrined. Compassionate people
everywhere must add their voice to the rising call to end this barbarity once
and for all.
~Jim
Robertson
