“Accidental” Victims

Not only are traps cruel, they are also completely indiscriminant. Every year, dogs, cats, birds, and other animals, including endangered species, are “accidentally” crippled or killed by traps placed in public areas across the country.

• In autumn 2003, Jasmine, a black-and-white springer spaniel, was sniffing around near her home in Wisconsin when she stuck her head into an unmarked Conibear trap. She yelped frantically as her head was crushed, and her teenage human companion, Tylere, was unable to do anything to save her when he found her fighting for her life. Jasmine died in his arms.

• In autumn 2002, an Oregon woman watched helplessly as her dog screamed after stepping into a steel-jaw leghold trap hidden in a meadow frequented by people and their companion dogs. It took three firefighters 24 grueling minutes to release the terrified dog from the trap.

• The day after Christmas in 1997, a Montana woman who was walking her dogs on public land struggled frantically as her canine companion screamed and writhed in agony when he suddenly became trapped by a baited Conibear trap. She unsuccessfully tried to release the clamp as her beloved companion slowly suffocated. “I’ve never seen anything as traumatic as this girl trying to raise the dog from the trap,” said a witness who heard the woman’s screams for help.

• In spring 2003, a Virginia trapper was convicted of cruelty to animals after he killed several cats while attempting to capture raccoons and foxes in order to sell their pelts in the fur trade.

The only way to prevent companion animals and other unintended victims from wandering into these horrific traps is for the U.S. to follow the lead of 88 other countries and ban the use of leghold traps once and for all. As long as leghold traps and other body-gripping devices are available to trappers, animals will continue to suffer and die in them.