ORIGINAL: Criggster
The traps just hold the animal. If used correctly, they do not even hurt the animal in any way.
I don't fully agree with that. It will break the skin of the animal, and depending on the size of the trap and temprament of the animal they can inflict a lot of damage to their feet. I've heard of instances where they chew their leg off to get out, but have not experienced it. Most of the animals I caught had some damage to their legs, but would heal with time.
A guy I work with had this discussion with a PETA person awhile back. She was putting on an anti-trapping demonstration during an outdoor event complete with a #1 1/2 trap. She struggled with the trap demonstrating how strong it was even going to the extreme of standing on the springs to set it. Once set, she took a pencil and showed how the trap broke the pencil when sprung. My co-worker then walked up, took the trap from her and set it again, laid it down on the table in front of her and sprung it using his fingers straight into the trap pan. He held it up, wiggled his fingers around to let everybody see his fingers weren't broken nor his skin bruised or bleeding then, using the thumb and forefinger of the opposite hand, proceeded to remove the trap. The key to trapping is to use traps of the proper size for the animal being trapped and checking them on a regular basis. Sets for canines should be checked early in the morning, as in sunrise to avoid pull outs. The use of a drag will further reduce pull outs and using traps with offset jaws or padded jaws further reduces injury.