Search Trapping Incidents Database

ANN ARBOR, MI – A Chelsea man’s cat died after becoming caught in a neighbor’s steel-jawed leghold trap, prompting the Humane Society of Huron Valley to warn residents about the dangers of inhumane wildlife control methods.

The cat, named Bucky, was discovered in a neighbor’s burn pit with extensive burns over most of his body and compound fractures to both front legs. The neighbor had been using a steel-jawed leghold trap on his property intended to capture and kill wildlife, according to the owner’s report to HSHV officers who are investigating the case.

Investigators concluded Bucky suffered catastrophic injuries after becoming caught in the trap.

PARSONS, WV – An incident occurred on Spruce Street in March involving the purposeful trapping of a cat in a Conibear kill trap on the sidewalk. The incident first came to light on Facebook through the “We Are Parsons – West Virginia” community page when Seth Roy posted a picture to the page with the telling of the incident.

A witness to the incident said that she was on the phone and en route to her sister, Melissa Coker, when her sister’s teens and a teen friend found and attempted to assist the cat. The teens at first thought they heard a cat fight and went to investigate and break up the fight when they made the discovery of the cat with their head caught in a Conibear trap on the sidewalk under a truck owned by Darrell (D.L) Tasker, a neighbor.

Over the course of a half hour, three teens attempted to pry the cat free until the trap was open, just wide enough for the girl to push the cat’s head free. Once released from the trap, the cat ran off into the darkness. No one was able to catch the animal. The teens were crying during the incident. Tucker County Sheriff Jake Kopec said that all agencies responded to the incident. The call was initially dispatched to City Police, but the Sheriff’s Department has jurisdiction over the whole of Tucker County. Along with City and County, Animal Control also responded.

Evans claimed the property owner had placed the trap under his truck on a public sidewalk within City limits. Other claims Evans made included that the property owner leaves cat food on his property for cats to lure them to the property and that prior to this incident, he had only used live traps. There is a City Ordinance in effect that states that if an individual is trapping cats, that only non-lethal methods can be employed. “Obviously that style of trap that was used, was not a non-lethal trapping method,” Tucker County Animal Shelter Director Stacey Canfield said. “So that would fall under either the Sheriff’s Department or City Police.”

The owner of the cat wished to remain anonymous due to backlash from the community from people claiming the incident was his fault because his cat got out of the house. The incident remains under investigation.

SEVILLE, OH – The Medina County SPCA is seeking the public’s help after skeletal remains of an animal were found inside a trap near an apartment complex here, an abnormal discovery that has raised questions about what happened. According to a post the organization shared on Facebook Tuesday morning, the trap containing what is believed to be the bones of an opossum was found Monday near the Village Square Apartments in Seville.

Officials said the trap was reported to the SPCA’s humane department on Monday. While there are multiple possible explanations for how the animal ended up inside, the location is a frequently traveled area, and the trap appears to have been placed within the past several days.

“While this may involve wildlife, there is still the possibility that the animal experienced prolonged suffering, which is something we take very seriously,” the Facebook post read. “This is an unusual situation, and we are hoping someone may have seen or heard something that could help provide clarity.” The Medina County SPCA is asking anyone with information about the incident to contact its humane officer at 330-802-7880.

UTAH COUNTY, UT – For the second time this month, a pet dog was injured after getting caught in an animal trap placed near a popular trail that winds through the Wasatch. Sarah Krout from Utah County reached out to FOX 13 News this week to voice her concerns. Krout, a student at Rocky Mountain University, regularly took her dog named Huck for long walks at Mount Timpanogos Park, which permits dogs to be off-leash. “He was doing his thing…and started screaming,” Krout recalled. “I thought he was getting attacked by a bobcat or something like that.”

Krout ran towards the noise and found Huck stuck in an animal trap. Fortunately, he wasn’t badly hurt, but she was left frustrated by the experience and went back to measure the area with her boyfriend. They say the trap was less than 50 feet off-trail.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA – A British Columbia couple is calling for change after a winter outing turned into a nightmare earlier this month. Sean Boxall and Nicole Trigg are mourning the loss of their two-year-old Siberian Husky, Moon, who was killed by a trap just meters from a public forest service road west of Radium Hot Springs.

The incident occurred on Jan. 8, near the 27-kilometre mark of the Horsethief Creek Forest Service Road, a popular area for outdoor recreation. Boxall had stopped to check the terrain for a ski tour when the dog wandered off the plowed road. Boxall said his pet had “triggered a freshly baited Conibear trap” along one of the road’s banks, per CTV News. He said he attempted to use his hands to free the dog to no avail, but the effort left his hands torn and bloody, and he was only able to free Moon with a chainsaw, which was used to cut through the trap. The dog owner said he performed CPR on the animal, but the canine eventually succumbed to his injuries and died. Boxall told CTV News that Moon “suffered an atrocious and agonizing death.”

Conservation officers investigated the incident and interviewed the dog owner and trapper and determined that the “trapper was properly licensed, the trapline and area it was placed was legal, and the related trapping season was open.”