RE: Mechanical BH-75% failure rate!!!!!!!
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>By the way,no animal is going to chew its own leg off unless that leg is broken and therefor the loss of feeling is gone,allowing it too.<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>
I have heard many, many trappers report this. My taxidermist has told me it has often happened to him. I did a quick bit of searching and located some research addressing this subject:
"Animals chew off their own limbs to free themselves from the metal jaws – a ploy known as wring off. They also attack the trap itself, leading to major tooth and gum injuries. A Swedish study of foxes caught in legholds and snares (41) reported an incidence of tooth injuries ranging from 19 per cent in juveniles to 58 per cent in older animals.
An earlier US study (42) recorded 73 per cent of female otters and 68 per cent of males had incurred such damage. Injuries included teeth that were crushed and splintered and jaw sockets that were entirely denuded of teeth. In the stomachs of trapped animals evidence of their struggle will invariably be found. A 1969 examination of arctic foxes (43) found skin, claws, teeth, bits of bone and parts of mangled feet.
Trappers will claim that the incidence of wring-off is exaggerated by the ‘antis’. Hard, current data is difficult to come by for obvious reasons: a reluctance to report and/or the mutilated animal is no longer to be found. But a 1956 study of foxes caught in legholds established that 26 per cent escaped by gnawing off their feet or by dragging away the trap itself (44). Similar percentages were reported for mink and raccoons. More recently (45), a 67 per cent ‘amputation’ rate was found in kit foxes – this from wring-off, or from the action of the trap."