This blog post is in direct response to Bill Klein’s recent posting on Club Outdoors where he describes an incident involving his dog getting caught in a trap. You can read his comments HERE in their entirety.
First off, I want to begin by saying that I deeply regret that Bill’s new black lab, Doc, got caught in a trap and that Bill had to endure this truly unfortunate experience. I can understandably appreciate why he is upset about the events, however, I take great umbrage to the manner in which he channels his emotion. Let me repeat so this is NOT FORGOTTEN. I regret Bill had to endure this experience with his black lab and I do not want this statement lost in any of the comments I am about to make in this rebuttal.
I don’t know much about trapping but this much I do know: whoever wrote the ad appearing in the DNR’s Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook teaching “how to release a domestic animal from a trap” has never actually faced that situation.
Bill, first off, the instructions featured on page 53 of the 2009 Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook describes a procedure on how to release a domestic animal from a body-gripping trap (often called a Conibear trap). The reason these instructions are even included in the synopsis is because this type of trap, when used properly, is intended to kill the animal that is caught. In other words, time is of the essence in removing the animal and if you’re not familiar with the operation of such a trap this paid advertisement by the Minnesota Trappers Association offers some basic information towards that end.
…The Minnesota Trappers Association ad in the rule book says: Step One: Remain calm and speak soothingly to the dog. There’s our first clue that the ad writer is clueless.
As a long-time member of the Minnesota Trappers Association I can assure you this assertion made on your part is totally without merit. The leaders of the MTA are some of the most upstanding and experienced trappers to be found anywhere in this country. Their advice is sound and proven. Again, your leg hold trap shown in the picture IS NOT the same type of trap for which this paid advertisement explains a release procedure. This should be evident by comparing the instructional graphics to your picture.
I ultimately had to leave my dog trapped, run home, get a bolt cutter and my tractor, cut the trap chain and carry Doc, with trap still attached, home in the bucket of my tractor. A crow bar finally freed him.
With all due respect, as someone familiar with traps and trapping, your choice of actions were a gross over reaction in my estimation. Cutting the trap chain and carrying the dog (with trap still attached) home in the bucket of a tractor—you really think these actions were necessary, not to mention safe for the dog? Furthermore, the manner in which YOU CHOSE to handle this situation sensationalizes an already unfortunate incident. Seriously, a “crow bar” to free your dog? C’mon, Bill…if you used such equipment to open a leg-hold trap you likely inflicted unnecessary pain on your dog by attempting to pry the jaws apart. I’m sorry if you couldn’t get the jaws opened by simply stepping on the release levers…but in my experience it takes very little effort or strength to accomplish this task. Oh, and by the way…I have a trap shed with dozens of traps just like the one shown. Many have 4–springs and not just 2 like the one that caught Doc. I know what I’m talking about.
Next day I found the trapper and determined he had no license, no ID on his traps, was setting his snare traps far above 16” off the ground, was setting traps in deer trails and, finally, gave me a false name.
Did you call the Conservation Officer and get him involved? There’s no mention of that happening in your story. You state how you found the trapper and how you determined he had no license. It just seems to me that had a CO been acting in this capacity rather than you our sporting community as a whole would have been much better off. Not only was this guy trespassing, he did not have proper identification on his traps plus a whole host of other law violations. You state he gave you a false name. Wonderful. Too bad the name wasn’t given to the CO instead, because that would have been yet another law violation. To you…he’s under no legal obligation to provide any of those facts. To a law enforcement officer he cannot lie.
But the bigger issue here is whether dry land snare and spring loaded traps should be allowed at all in the Twin City seven-county area. Certainly trapping has its place. But is that place where people and dogs are likely to confront them?
The point totally being missed in your assertion that trapping should be outlawed is how you encountered one law violator and chose to paint the entire trapping community with negativism and misguided information for the sole purpose to make a point in your blog post.
Okay, Bill…let me ask you this. Forget everything I’ve just said and let’s change this scenario just a bit. If rather than a trapper let’s say a wandering pheasant hunter was on your property and broke a window in your shed with stray pellets…would you call for the abolishment of pheasant hunting? Or how about a deer hunter who shoots at a deer clearly on your property when he’s hunting a neighbor’s land? Should we do away with deer hunting because a few individuals each year engage in unethical and illegal activities in their sport?
I guess more than anything I’m deeply disappointed in your breaking the unwritten sportsman’s code of behavior by letting your emotions clearly cloud your good judgment. Rather than focus on the criminal acts and call them out solely for what they were…instead you chose to condemn a very proud, responsible and legal trapping heritage that many of us enjoy without these sort of incidents.
Indeed, in my opinion, your decision to focus disparaging remarks directed toward the trapping community as a whole is equally as unfortunate as the incident that most recently occurred to your dog, Doc.
Filed under: Current Outdoor Issues, Law Enforcement, Trapping, Weblogs
I appreciate your reading my blog. I have
the trap here at home. Come on over and show me how to open it. And yes, I have a conservation officer looking for the offender. Bill K.
P.S. If a pheasant hunter shot out a window he’d be charged with reckless discharge.
Jim,
Just a couple of comments from the chicken gallery. It sounds to me that Bill Klein’s understandable response to his dog getting trapped has hit a very sore spot in your trapping psyche! Your rebuttal seems to be fueled by more emotion than his and he had the panicked brays of his beloved hunting companion echoing in his head.
By now you have had the chance to calm down from your violent knee jerk reaction to “this guy is attacking my trapping tradition and making all of us ethical trappers look like heartless buffoons, violators and agents of death!!”
Seems to me that you were the guy that wrote the ad explaining the release from the conibear trap and Bill’s comments took a nick out of your pride. I think the blow to your ego caused you to go temporarily insane when you tried to tell a guy whose dog was potentially seriously injured that he over reacted in his haste to free the animal without harm. The fact is, during the struggle by the dog to free himself, the leg hold trap could have very easily become jammed at the release levers (2 spring or 4 spring). I am sure that in all of your years of experience in trapping you have experienced wedged leg holds that require a little mechanical assistance to release. I have had “locked” traps in all of my years of experience that I am sure even a man of your Herculean strength could not have freed, especially with the dog you love trying to rip his paw off to get out.
In reading Klein’s post, I didn’t for a minute get the feeling that law enforcement was not involved in investigating the illegal trapping activities that were occurring around his area. Seems to me that all the guy did was a little due diligence to determine why his dog was caught in an unmarked trap. In my zen like state it makes sense that this information was probably passed on to the authorities.
Finally, nowhere in Klein’s post do I get the feeling that he is condemning the entire trapping industry, as your overly emotional, knee jerk rebuttal implies. I don’t think he is calling for the industry to be shut down, but rather, looking to get the aforementioned violator out of his backyard.
In summary, the guy’s dog got caught in a trap. It hurt the dog and scared the hell out of the dog’s owner. He is entitled to a little emotional discourse. You, on the other hand, need to do some yoga or meditation to release the pressure you are under to single handedly protect the entire trapping industry from the attacks of the uninformed liberal left.
Well put.