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Wyoming Game and Fish department staff discovered a dead grizzly bear in one of the agency’s baited traps early Sept. 30 — a first-of-its-kind capture-related fatality that nevertheless sparked dismay among conservationsts and other bear advocates. Trappers found the 326-pound, approximately 7-year-old male grizzly dead in a box trap at the Shoshone Lodge outside the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Troy police say a resident was walking his dog in Beach Road Park, which is a city park, around 2 p.m. on May 16 when the dog stepped on a trap and got his leg caught. The dog’s owner located several other traps set in the area and set them off so other dogs or people would not be caught. He was able to free his dog from the trap and the dog was expected to be fine.

Brad Dubach has been walking his dogs on different trails around Boise for 25 years. During a hike near Blacks Creek Reservoir, his dog, Rose, got caught in a trap that was intended for a different type of animal, likely coyotes. In Idaho, trapping isn’t anything new, but as temperatures warm up pet owners should be aware of where they could run across those animal traps.

“The old rule was five feet from the center of a maintained trail,” said Charlie Justice, a regional conservation officer for Idaho Fish and Game. Now, trappers are urged to place their traps at least 10 feet from the edge of a trail or road.

A Fairbanks trapper faces misdemeanor charges after he admitted snaring more than two dozen moose to use the meat as bait for catching wolves. Joseph Lyndon Johnson, 24, was charged in early January after an Alaska wildlife trooper investigated a trapline the man had set. The trooper, investigating the man’s trapline on March 21 near Hess Creek north of Fairbanks, found a trapped live wolf next to a moose carcass. He also found two marten traps, still set though the season ended weeks earlier.

Four Mexican gray wolves were trapped in New Mexico on land managed by the U.S. Forest Service over the last two months. The four endangered wolves included a breeding-age female that died and a male that was taken into captivity only to have his injured leg amputated. These two wolves are from the Prieto Pack. The other two were re-released to the wild and their whereabouts are currently unknown.

A snare trap accidentally killed an adult female wolverine. Idaho has not allowed a hunting or trapping season for wolverines since 1965.

A man illegally set a trap on his property that caught and killed his neighbor’s dog, Oregon State Police said.

Troopers arrested Monte Callaway, 57, of Bandon on charges of Animal Abuse 1 (Felony), Trapping Prohibited Method – Unbranded Traps, Instant Kill Trap with Jaw Spread 9 inches or More in Any Land Set, Unlawful Take Furbearer – Raccoon, and No Raccoon Take Permit.

The investigation started the evening of June 11 when the dog’s owner reported the animal had been caught and killed in a trap on a neighbor’s property, state police said. Callaway had set a Conibear 330 trap on land, police said.” A conibear 330 trap is commonly used to trap beaver, and is required by the Oregon Furbearer Trapping Regulations to be used in a water set only, and it is illegal to use it on land,” according to state police.

A man laid traps down in his yard in order to capture his neighbors’ pets, trapping at least one dog and one cat. The man faces a misdemeanor charge of injuring the animals.

Members of a local animal rescue group are outraged after a cat was found caught in a steel leg-hold trap in a Houston residential Heights neighborhood. The Friends For Life rescue organization saved the cat but they believe it was stuck in the painful trap for days.