Disturbing
 

Well, I decided to get out today and do some shed hunting and something very irritating happened to me. I stumbled across a racoon with wire wrapped around it's mid section. Looked as if it died a misarable death. Proceeded onward and found a dead button buck. Looks as if it starved. Proceeded onward while my 90# chessy was behind me. I heard some lumber busting and saw that she was tangled in what I thought was barbed wire. I starting walking, but realized that this was really bad. Went to a sprint and jumped on her back and jammed my fingers down between her neck and a cable. Got enough room to give her air and relaxed her then proceeded to remove the snare from her neck. She was so excited that she took a crap all over the place. No major damage so far. She is a bit tender where it dug in. Walked back and found that the deer did starve because it was snared and so was the racoon. Went a bit futher and I scrapped the next one that I found. Both dead animals were I am guessing 1 month old with no tracks in the snow. My father taught me how to trap when I was growing up and we NEVER left a day go by without checking our traps nor did we leave them in the woods. I am not sure yet if snares are legal in MI or if trapping is still in, but that was bigtime BS to leave snares in the woods. After seeing that mess today, I am totally against snares and trappers that don't have a clue. When I was a kid and trapped, we had to place our name and address on the traps. Good thing that this trapper didn't after the mood that I was in. My wife wants me to call the law, I was thinking about just informing the neighbors. I did speak to one guy and he's missing his cat.

RE: Disturbing
 

it's sad

here it's illegal to remove traps no matter what
but you have to check them every day if you have them


i would though

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Not good!! Sounds like a very irresponsible trapper. If it was I, I think I'd be calling the law. Thats really careless. My brother traps and he uses snares and does it the right way, he checks them every day. These guys should be prosecuted!!

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I'd be calling the law as well. I know snares are illegal in PA. Also, in PA the law and common sense requires all traps checked under a designated time frame. I'd be checking into all you found.

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i would definatley call a CO and let them know. The MI DNR does and excellent job of tracking these guys down. hope your pup does ok, good thing you reacted as fast as you did.

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Sounds like a young kid got into dads snares. Whatever happened that is too bad.

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I don't care if it was illegal to remove traps, but if my dog got caught in one, I would be taking every one of that sap suckers traps out to the road.

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I agree with you, but I also agree with your wife! If you are really as upset as you say you are, and as I am after reading your post, you know if you want something to be done about this, you must call the authorities. They will eventually catch these people. They can keep watch better than any of us can and they can talk to more people and get more information. There is nothing you and I can do except get ourselves in trouble to. LET THEM HANDLE IT!! Good luck my friend. You know what conservation, hunting and just plain old outdoors is all about.

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i would go and find each one and cut them even if that happen to my dog.[:@]

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Yeah, but that has never been my MO; to call the law on anyone including my neighbors. It would certainly feel better going down there cut them in pieces and then going house to house to educate.

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Sorry to hear about your dog !!

In ND if private land... you"must "have written permission from the landowner to trap. Is that the case for your state ?? If so, get a hold of the landowner and see who has permission to trap. Turn them in !! Let the warden do his job in getting them convicted!!

I use totrap. We have to check our traps every 2 days to stay legal. I checked mine every day although Inever used snares. There are bad trappers just like bad hunters. The only way to stop them is to turn them in.

Oh and it is illegal for anyone to tamper with other's trapshere in ND. Another reason to let the warden handle it if the same in your area.

Tim

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Im against traps of any kind.I think an animal deserves a fast clean death.If you have to trap cause your starving or have no other means to get foodI can understand but if your not goto grocery store.

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Who let peta in here ?? Sounds like their reasoning. [&:]

Let's see... Trapping helps prevent the spread of rabies, mange, distemper by helping tokeep fox, coyote, coon and skunks populationsin check.

Trappingto control these animal's populationimprovesboth uplandbirds and waterfoul hatching success rates.

I used conibears for quite a bit of my trapping. Death was fairly fast and very clean. Death was always fast and clean when I arrived at my foot holdsets.

I would go into how I modified my foot holdtraps, used the proper sized traps for the animal, proper chain length, avoided areas of dogs or cats, used live traps in areas of dogs or catsand ect to keep the animal from anysuffering other then being in the trap plus keeping dogs and cats out of my traps... butyou would have to take the blinders off and try opening your very closed mind. Would you ??

Tim

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You may trap animals all you want learn to hunt and you wont need a trap.Use your bow to keep the animals in check or are you not able to to find them without a trap and some sort of bait.This is my opinion on 90% of the pictures and videos I see of coyotes and other animals suffering for no reason in traps.If you are using something that kills them fast while in the trap god bless you.

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Ok... that is a no on the blinders.

Tim

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Mech,
First, I can guarantee you, a decent trapper has a much better understanding of animals thanmost hunters.Getting within shooting distance of adeer iseasy compared to knowing just what tiny patch of earth a coyote or fox or minkis likely to set his foot.

Second, do you even know anything about traps? Do youknow thata muskrat in 110 conibear, a coon in a220,a beaver in 330 dies in seconds? Do you know that when they catch and collar wolves for research they use foot traps? Same goes for many other animals trapped and relocated. Do you know that animals caught in cable restraints (relaxing snares)can also be released unharmed if so desired? Locking snares can be used to kill the animal quickly if so desired.

Third, do you know that a study showed that 25% of the raccoon populationin an untrapped area of NE IL died from distemper each year? Have you ever seen an animal dying from distemper? It's a slow miserable death that can take weeks. Did you know that at least 75% of raccoons in IL are infected with raccoon roundworms, a worm that is not only transmittable to humans, but can and has killed people?When other animals (including people) get the worm, it eats away at their brains and eyes. Have you seen the coyotes and foxes dying of mange in your area? It's not pretty. How is letting them die naturally.... humane???

You really do sound like a PETA person.

As far as the snares in the orginal post, I'd report them to the CPO. Unattended/abandoned traps are a bad situation.

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Very good post Christine!! Your very good with words and explaining things as usual.;) I'm pretty sure Mech is a little uneducated in the trapping department, your post should open his/her eye's some.

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Thats terrible I trapped as a young man and never let a day go by wothout checking my trapline....

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You have to take this to the law. Taking matters in your own hands will only get you in trouble, besides, the law can handle these people the way the should be handled. You and I can only give them a beating, which is letting them off too lightly.

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Tim & Christine,
Saved me some typing

In PA you have to take a special snare class if you want to be able to use them.

To the original post, you definitely need to get the law involved. My bet is that it's not even a real trapper, but likely some blundering fool set them out for some dumb reason and forgot or doesn't care to take them down.

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Just wanted to let everyone know that I have the deepest respect for trappers. My grandfather was one and I learned a lot especially respect for nature and that hard work has rewards. I have used live traps, foot traps, and conibears, but never snares. After witnessing this mess, I can say that I wouldn't use them. To see if you agree,I will take some photos and post pics of the racoon and deer as soon as I can get back out there. Can't really recreate the snare and the dog scenario. Make no mistake, I am not associated with PITA nor can I. I work with a company that usesanimals for research to improve mankind. Just want to educate others like I have been educated on this site. Haven't decided about the law yet. Seems like everyone pointing toward reporting. Just doesn't seem to be neighbor like and really don't need any retaliation. The land owner's nephew hunts the land. He gave me permission to walk the property, but not to hunt and I gave him the same respect on the property that I hunt. Not sure if he is the culprit or not. I can tell you that if I do report and it is him, I am certain that this relationship will change placing me in the dilema that we discussed a few weeks ago (i.e. if you shoot a deer and it goes on to another property, do you get it?). Right now, no problems.

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One more thing to I forgot to add. With setting snares, if there not set up right allot of bad things can happen. Deer carrying them around, etc! They are a very high % way of trapping and killing the animal right away if set up properly for that particular animal. The people using them in your case were idiots.