Why Trapping is Cruel

Every year, trappers kill 10 million raccoons, coyotes, wolves, bobcats, opossums, nutria, beavers, otters, and other fur-bearing animals. Trappers use various types of traps, including snares and Conibear traps, but the leghold trap is the one most widely used.

The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns these traps and has classified them as “inhumane.” When an animal steps on the leghold trap spring, the trap’s jaws slam on the animal’s limb. As the animal struggles—in unimaginable pain—to get free, the steel vice cuts into his or her flesh—often down to the bone—mutilating the leg or paw. Some animals, especially mothers desperate to return to their young, fight so vigorously that they attempt to chew or twist off their trapped limb. Animals often struggle for hours, sometimes days, before they finally succumb to exhaustion, exposure, frostbite, shock, and death.

Because leghold traps are inherently cruel, their use has been banned in 88 countries and several states in the U.S., including California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington state. In 1994, Arizona banned the use of leghold traps on public lands.

It is time now for these torture devices to be banned on all public lands, beginning with our National Parks.