Trapping Incident #234

Summary:

Humane Officer Joe Hunt received a call about a dog, trapped and drowning in the middle of the White River. Fearing he would never make it in time, he sped the 30 miles to Enumclaw, where he was forced to leave his van at the end of a dirt road and dash over a mile through the woods to reach the helpless dog. When Joe reached the river’s edge, he saw a black and gray dog with large panicked eyes looking up at him from the glacier-fed waters. Without hesitation, Joe went into the water. “I held onto the bank with one hand and felt under the water around the dog’s back legs. That’s when I found the [beaver] trap,” Joe said. “It was chained to the river bottom.” Joe worked to free Jake by trying to cut the chain. Joe fought the current and the numbing cold, making many trips to the river bottom to cut at the trap. Finally he was able to cut through the chain and bring the exhausted dog up onto the bank. “He wouldn’t have made it much longer. He would have drowned when his strength gave out.”

Result: