Letter to the Editor

Disturbing story

Monday, December 15, 2003

Dear Editor,

As a trapper I found some disturbing information in the story ran on Thursday Dec. 11th.

I am a very skilled trapper and have some questions that linger after reading the well written article.

I have a very hard time believing that one could judge how long a dog was left in a trap unless they knew the dog was there.

I have caught many many dogs and some were of very close friends.

What I have found is that each dog reacts differently to being restrained. Some dogs will fight the trap hard but some, being used to being restrained, will lay up and wait for help. After reading the article and seeing that the careless owners did not restrain their dog, would be lead to think that this dog would have fought the trap very hard.

The amount of damage described could of happened in a mere few hours. It should also be noted that the trapper was concerned with animal welfare as he took time to laminate his traps (that's the rod welded to the jaw).

I whole heartedly agree that the trapper was at fault IF he did not check his traps according to law, but one would not know this for sure if they did not witness the dog each day of the supposed five days in the trap.

I am a law enforcement officer and know how hard it is for our local conservation officers to catch someone who neglects their duties. As with all groups we have a very few who are careless or lazy and will help us lose the battle we are fighting.

As you might be aware of there are a few small groups of animal rights activist who feel our past time should be done away with. In fact we are the true animal rights activist for with out good management we would not have this renewable resource to utilize.

It's a shame that bad publicity like this from a very small population has to reflect on trappers as a whole. I hope your are an objective and unbiased publication that will in the future print articles that will also show the good trappers do.

For without trappers all animal conflicts will be fraught with bleak results. Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Donald Wilson

via e-mail

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