Search Trapping Incidents Database

The leg of a gray and white kitten approx 6 mos old was almost completely severed after getting caught in a leg-hold trap. The kitten was taken to the vet and her leg amputated.

In a forested area across the street from house, where kids and dogs play year ’round, a hunter threatened to kill the dogs if he saw them in the forest while he was hunting. The hunter set the traps within a week of making the threat. The dogs were caught in the traps and stayed overnight at the vet hospital, being unable even to drink water because of the swelling of their throats. Charges against the hunter are pending.

“I was walking with my 2 dogs near the woods when Brownie started yelping,” writes her caregiver. “The trap that got her was so old and rusty there was no ribber buffer left. I took me about a full minute to figure out how to get it off. I pulled the trap out of the ground and threw it in a nearby pond!” Brownie’s caregiver cleaned the wound with peroxide and bandaged it, deeming the wound not serious enough to require a vet visit.

On a street lined on both sides with houses, where most homes have companion animals, Mushy was found in a trap by person(s) unknown and put in the caregiver’s back yard for caregiver to find. The veterinarian said that Mushy had been in the trap for a while. “Both back legs were torn to shreds and the bone splintered and hanging out.” Mushy was put to sleep to end his suffering. In asking around the neighborhood, the caregiver could find no one who knew of any traps in the area. “Rumors started about middle school boys playing with traps just to see what they could catch.”

In a rural wooded area adjacent to within feet of residential backyard property, a woman saw the dog crawling and trying to paw what she thought was a muzzle of the contraption off her snout. When she approached to give the dog some water, it was discovered to be caught in a head trap. The SPCA was immediately alerted. The dog’s snout, neck, and mouth were pinned by the Conibear trap. The trap could not be removed at the scene. The dog died in transport to animal hospital. It took several SPCA workers to pry the trap from the dog’s head. The trap was set illegally set to catch groundhogs by a neighbor who neglected to warn neighbors in the surrounding area. Three other Conibear traps were found on his property. The man who set the trap claimed he had no idea the traps were illegal. Cats in the neighborhood have disappeared since the traps were set. Charges are expected to be filed before Magisterial district judge.

A woman and her sister often hiked on old logging roads in Department of Natural Resources land near Silverdale. On this occasiion, Freckles wandered off the trail and was caught in a Conibear trap, an instant kill underwater trap set illegally on land. “Though she struggled mightily against the iron bars holding fast her small neck, slowly Freckles was strangling to death. We had no idea how to free her and our tearing and clawing at the trap was to no avail. Finally, through sheer luck and primal strength born of fear and outrage, my sister and I were able to pry the bars apart sufficiently so that Freckles was able to pull her head out.”

Within minutes after the incident detailed above, Jingles was caught by the legs in a steel-jaw leghold trap.

Along an angler’s path off the Old Glenn Highway, Zoe caught her head in a Conibear 330 trap baited with half a salmon. Zoe’s head was engulfed and the heavy ruff at her neck crushed. A man muscled open the trap to free Zoe, and his sister, Zoe’s caregiver, administered CPR. Zoe survived. Although the trap was set legally, it was not set ethically, being buried under a scum of dead leaves on the trail.

A 78-year-old man was charged with felony animal abuse after baiting a steel trap with a dead cow to catch a neighbor’s dog. The dog was released by his caregiver and taken to the vet to have his broken leg set in cast. The man who set the trap said that he had pulled a dead cow to the back side of his property and dumped it next to his fence line. He tied some traps on the cow. He said the people who live in the trailer park, near the backside of his land, let their dogs roam free, he believed one of the dogs from the trailer park killed his cow. The man said it did not matter because he had the right to kill any dog he finds on his property. He said he knew the dead cow would cause the dogs to come onto his property. He wanted to trap all of the dogs running loose, and then he would kill them. He also said the sheriff’s department doesn’t scare him, and he will continue to kill any dogs he finds on his property.

A couple was hiking when their dog went off the trail and stuck her head into the opening of a small teepee about two feet high. An illegal spring-loaded Conibear trap snapped shut on her neck, killing her.