Research needed

Dear Editor,

The story concerning the dog being held in a trap for 5 days reeks of a set up and a disregard for follow up on your reporters part.

It is obvious that she did not talk to any knowledgeable trappers concerning this story, and instead chose to paint a picture of gross negligence.

For the record, trappers DO NOT use cellophane to cover their traps. And although no responsible trapper would ever want to catch a domestic animal, it does happen from time to time, animals are released without injury 99.9 percent of the time. I wonder why the reporter chose not to paint the pet's owners as irresponsible for letting their pets run free.

It seems to me that there was an underlying agenda here. Irresponsible pet ownership is not a reason to transfer the blame to a trapper. It is also possible that the trap could have been legally tagged and the tag was inadvertently removed during the so-called rescue.

Another question is why would those boys "happen" to know where there were some traps set?

They are usually well-concealed when set, and unless they were there when the traps were set, or set them themselves, how could they know where they were? This story needs further clarification and should have been better researched before being put in to print. It is this kind of irresponsible journalism that causes problems between different groups of people who use the outdoors.

Thank you,

Wayne Stottlar

via e-mail