Search Trapping Incidents Database

In a fenced area, a trapper had cut holes in the fence and set the trap to catch animals passing through. Tilly’s neck was caught in trap, and although she was freed — with swelling, bruising, cuts, and broken bones — her neck is permanently crooked.

A woman found her cat deep in the woods behind her house, caught in a steel trap that luckily didn’t have teeth. After about 10 hours in the trap, he suffered soft tissue damage and was in a cast for at least a month. “I was lucky to have found him,” she writes, “and it was on county park property.” She reported the incident to park authorities, and adds, “I think local rednecks were setting traps on park property because it’s one of the only large wooded areas in a densely populated area. Maybe they intended to trap muskrats or who knows what. I contacted the park and took someone to the site but the trap was gone … word about the incident had gotten out through neighbors and the trap was retrieved by the culprit.”

The cat dragged the trap until its 6-1/2-ft chain caught on a fence. The cat tried to chew off his leg to escape.

Traps set by federal biologists for adult wolf in Yellowstone National Park instead crushed pup’s leg. The trap was left unchecked for 2 days.

Caught dragging untagged trap, the cat lost the litter of kittens she was carrying.

The trap was set by a Fish and Wildlife “contract trapper”. The trapped dog was found by a man walking in the Kellys Slough Wildlife Refuge with his dog and toddler. The veterinarian who examined the dog said she had been in the trap for at least a week.

Although both traps on back legs were “padded,” they still crushed all her toes.

In a National Forest, Mollie was caught in a leghold trap for about ten minutes. She bit her guardian on the shin when he tried to free her. He writes, “This dog was also emotionally scared and held a grudge toward me for months — maybe forever — even though it was not my trap — I was only trying to help.” The trap was apparently legally set, and there is no violation for “accidentally” trapping a dog.

In the mountains near the family cabin, 15 miles north of Payson, Troy stepped into a leghold trap. “Troy’s screams were unbelievable. He was not only terrified, but in desperate pain,” writes his caregiver. Caught for about 15 minutes, Troy’s leg was crushed between ankle and paw, with swelling, bruising, and loss of skin. Although this was reported to the Forest Service, the trap owner was not found.

At Blue Hole, north of Payson, the dog was caught in a leghold trap. “She was not injured by the trap,” writes her guardian, “but her leg did swell and was tender for a couple of days. That particular trap was small (to trap foxes) and hearing her scream, I was able to pull the teeth apart far enough to get her leg out.”