Family Frees Fox After Their Dog is Nearly Caught in Trap

Summary:

Las Vegas, NV – Bobby Vaske, his wife, Jessica, and their two children frequent hikes with their two dogs at the same location: west of Centennial Parkway up past the 215 Beltway. One day, their dogs alerted them to a fox stuck in a trap by their paw. After they noticed the fox in the trap, one of their dogs set off a second trap close by. “My dog did step in it and luckily didn’t get hurt, but it could have been my kids!” said Jessica. “I was just very surprised and I wanted to help the animal,” recalls their 12-year-old son, Dylan. “I didn’t want to leave it.”

At that point, Vaske drove home and went to his garage, found a broomstick with a hollow tube, got an extension cord, looped it through the end of the tube to make something resembling a dog catcher noose, and a laundry basket to put over the fox while they attempted to get the trap off of his foot.

The Vaske family believes the trappers used a glittery garland wrapped around a desert plant to mark the fox’s den–which was just feet away. “They put the trap right on his doorstep to where he couldn’t come out of his home without stepping on that trap,” said Jessica. “That is just so wrong! I saw a piece of rancid meat right next to the trap, and I didn’t know that any of this was legal.”

It is a gross misdemeanor in the state of Nevada to disturb somebody else’s trap. Upon investigation, however, game wardens didn’t cite Vaske for freeing the fox and found the trapper did nothing wrong.

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