Stop the Use of Cruel Traps at Our National Parks

PETA recently discovered that steel-jaw leghold traps and other cruel devices such as body-gripping traps and snares are routinely used at National Parks to capture and kill animals. In June 2004, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, for example, Cape Hatteras National Seashore was using leghold traps and snares to capture and kill cats, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and other animals.

Just one month later, several abandoned dogs were maimed and killed after suffering injuries inflicted by steel-jaw leghold traps set in South Dakota’s Badlands National Park. Because of the severity of their injuries, all but one dog had to be euthanized, and the sole survivor lost her front right leg—it had to be amputated.

Badlands Superintendent William Supernaugh told the Rapid City Journal that park staff were “trying to do the right thing,” but the use of these medieval torture devices cannot be justified under any circumstances. No animal, wild or domestic, should be made to suffer and die in these horrible traps when humane alternatives are widely used and commercially available. Animals can be easily and humanely captured with live traps.