Search Trapping Incidents Database

Hookstown, PA – Valerie Plummer and her dog Shiloh were both seriously injured while walking in Raccoon Creek State Park. The incident occurred around noon on January 6 at Raccoon Creek State Park, along Nichol Road, about 1.5 miles from the parking area off State Route 168. Plummer said she was walking her dogs on a multi-use trail in the park on-leash, something she had done many times before.

“I was just walking, and they decided to stop and sniff. The one of them just pawed the ground. Her paw got caught in a trap, and she freaks out,” Plummer said. “I went in to grab the trap to try to figure it out, and she just latched on to me and just tore my arm apart.” Shiloh suffered broken teeth and a ruptured blood vessel in her eye, while Plummer’s arm was severely injured.

Plummer had to hike out to park rangers to get help. Once she reached them, she asked about the legality of the traps in a nonhunting area. “And they didn’t have an answer. You don’t have to report where you put your traps here in the state park,” she said. Determined to prevent future incidents, Plummer wrote to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Ontario, CANADA – A Timmins woman’s two dogs are recovering after getting caught up in trapping snares over the weekend.  In the wake of the incident, Lynn Bilodeau and the Timmins Fur Council are both raising awareness about walking in the bush. Lynn Bilodeau was walking her two large dogs in the bush off Malette Road on Sunday when the dogs went off the path and got caught in baited snare traps. Bilodeau’s daughter ran to their truck and brought back shears to cut the lines. Both dogs were caught around the neck. They are recovering, with the younger dog, Molly, having a burst blood vessel in her eye.

Malette Road is in the west end of Timmins is a wooded area, but the logging road has several markers along it where Bilodeau was walking. Her dogs had gone into a clearing off the path when they were caught in the traps. Bilodeau called the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) about the incident and they informed her she could be charged with interfering with a trap.  The MNR has investigated the incident and will not be pressing charges, said MNR spokesperson Mike Fenn.

Missoula, MT – On the first weekend of December, Missoula resident Alice Bailey went to walk her two dogs on a Miller Creek road. Just past the U.S. Forest Service boundary, Plant Creek Road is a familiar route, and Bailey had no concerns as she watched her pit bull, Peppa, run down to the creek for a drink. Then, she heard Peppa scream. Bailey, followed by her other little dog, ran down to where Peppa was still screaming and thrashing. Bailey realized Peppa was caught in a trap. As the pit bull continued to struggle, Bailey grew more scared when she saw blood coming out of Peppa’s mouth. She would later discover that Peppa had bit through her tongue several times. “It was a leg-hold trap – terrifying. I had my little dog with me too, and he has tiny little legs. I feel like if his leg had been in that, it would have been a different story.”

Good samaritans were able to spring the trap, and Bailey rushed her to the vet. The vet said that in the past, other dogs had suffered terrible injuries, but Peppa was lucky with no broken bones. Later, Bailey called Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to report the incident. Two wardens went to the site and found the trap. Since it was a minimum of 50 feet off the road, the trap was legal, and the wardens told Bailey they’d contact the trapper so he could reset the trap

Vancouver, Canada – Vinny the tuxedo short-hair cat was recently trapped by a hunting snare, shedding light on the dangers traps pose to family pets.

Donations continue to pour in for Vinny the cat’s recovery fund after the BC SPCA revealed he was rescued from an outdoor wildlife trap that snapped down on his paw.

“The injury quickly became infected, causing damage to the surrounding skin and tissue,” the agency explained in its fundraiser. “The pain must have been unbearable for this sweet boy, yet he continued to purr through it all.” Staff say the feline’s costly daily routine includes cleaning his wound, pain management, infection control, and X-rays.

Coquitlam, British Columbia – BC Conservation officers freed a black bear from a leg-hold trap in Coquitlam, and now an environmental group is offering a $1,000 reward to help catch whoever set it. On April 30, the BC Conservation Officer Service (COS) received a report of a bear with its paw trapped in the pressure-activated snare set near the Pitt River Boat Club.

COS said its officers called in police to close the nearby trail before tranquilizing the bear to remove the trap and examine the animal for injuries. The bear was determined to be in good health, and quickly relocated to a wilderness area outside the city, according to COS.

Although leg-hold traps are banned in many countries around the world, and several U.S. states, the immobilizing traps are still legal across Canada. Only leg-hold traps with metal teeth have been prohibited. Municipalities have an ability to ban their use within their jurisdiction, and Coquitlam did so with a bylaw back in 1979.

Sparks, NV – Valerie Lopez was walking her dog at Mustang Ranch in Sparks when she came across a deer ensnared in a trap. While she was trying to free the deer, she said her dog Duke also got caught in the snare.

“He’s like a 45-pound dog with a skinny neck. He could have broken his neck trying to break free from that,” Lopez said. Thankfully, Lopez was able to quickly free her dog, and the deer was later able to break out of the snare. After contacting the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), Lopez said she was surprised to learn that the trap was legally set, just a few hundred feet off the main trail.

Erin Myrick learned the same hard lesson just weeks later when she was walking her dog, Tru, on one of the hiking trails off of Disc Drive in Sparks in an off-leash area, when Tru wandered off a little ways on his own.

“I heard him yelp and I panicked, because I had just read about the other dog the week before out in Spanish Springs and I just knew it was a trap,” Myrick said. Unlike the one Lopez came across, it turned out that this trap had been set illegally. Myrick stated: “I thank God it wasn’t a kid who stepped in it.”

British Columbia, Canada – A northern B.C. woman experienced every pet owner’s nightmare when her dog, sniffing out the scent of raw fish on the side of a road (which turned out to be bait for the traps), was ensnared in multiple wolf traps. The incident occurred on a forested road just north of Kitimat, in an area frequented by snowmobilers, hikers, and dog walkers. The dog’s owner, Alexis Toews, is now urging all outdoor enthusiasts to exercise increased caution during trapping season.

Toews ran back to her truck for tools to release her dog from the wolf trap’s powerful grip when she discovered she was unable to open the trap with just strength alone, but when she returned, her dog’s rear foot had found another trap. A third had also been triggered and was now attached to the first. Toews called for RCMP assistance, but the two officers were unable to release the dog without causing more harm.

The Kitimat Fire Department was called in to cut through the traps with tools designed for vehicle extractions. After a tense two hours, the dog was admitted for a veterinary examination.

Gettysburg, PA – In the heart of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Adams County animal shelter is on a quest to locate the owner of a Great Pyrenees dog recently found ensnared in foothold traps. The dog, discovered by a man who had laid the traps for coyotes, was immediately rushed to the shelter for urgent medical attention.

As the shelter caregivers began administering first aid to the dog, they discovered an old injury indicating that the dog’s right front leg had been shot and brutally damaged by a bullet and was infected. The wound was so severe that the Adams County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) had no choice but to amputate the leg.

Baudette, MN – When a northern Minnesota trapper checked one of his traps set in hopes of catching a bobcat, he discovered an illegal catch instead. An out-of-season pine marten was in the trap and appeared to be dead. As is required by law, the trapper called a DNR conservation officer to report the illegal catch. “He called me almost in tears saying he had a pine marten in his bobcat set and that he didn’t want the animal to die,” said conservation officer Nicholas Prachar. “And as I was on the phone with him, he said, ‘Oh, hold on, the eyes just moved.’ And next thing I know he hung up on me.” The man called Prachar back a few minutes later to say he had revived the animal by performing CPR. The pine marten was later released.

The trapper told Prachar he was so unsettled by the incident he decided to collect all 10 of the bobcat traps he had set in the area. The DNR did not release the trapper’s name, and said the man did not want to be interviewed. Prachar believes the pine marten survived the body-grip trap designed to quickly kill an animal because they are much smaller than the bobcat the trap is designed for.