Hunter dog KILLED in body grip trap…..

I would believe that those wisconsin numbers are not actual because many trappers have taken the see no evil hear no evil method and just dispose of the animals with out reporting because of the public out cry to eliminate trapping in general. I have personally seen the results of being honest and up front letting dog owner know of their lab being caught on public property running unattended. My trapping partner and myself had all out furs taken as evidence and when we were found not at fault and asked for our hides back we were told the Dnr sold them and did not have to replace or compensate. Lessons learned no see no tell.

It’s not true that adopting the proven effective methods of using body grips in ways that protect dogs is “banning” their use. I see that all the time. As soon as trappers are asked to stop killing dogs they start screaming that someone is trying to ban trapping or ban body grips. Nonsense.

If we want a ban the fastest way to get it is to keep killing peoples dogs. When that happens the general public gets involved especially when they see the trappers associations refusing to compromise. I’ve had lots of hunters say they USED to support trapping but no longer do because of the no compromise position of the MN trappers associations.

Definitely there are many dogs that have just ‘disappeared’ after being killed in a body grip trap so the actual count must be much higher than the 50+ we’ve documented in recent years.

FYI, body grips aren’t used for coyotes. They are much too cautious to be taken in numbers in that type of trap. If a person doesn’t want to learn how to trap the coons that are causing problems on their property they can always use ‘dog proofs’ or just use one of the elevated body grip trap sets that can be found on the internet. They are simple and they work without killing dogs.

Make a box 3′-4′ long and fasten it to a tree or fence post so the opening is facing upward 4′ from the ground. Cut your slots 12″ and recess the trap down 12″ from the opening. Put your bait in the bottom. Some people also put a cover on the opening with a 6″ diameter hole to line the coon up for a quick kill. A dog can stand up and smell the box but can’t get it’s head down into the box far enough to get caught. Plus with the bait in the bottom near the ground that is where the dogs attention is drawn. A coon has no trouble climbing up and prefer to enter the box from the top anyway.

One of the MN Trappers Assn instructors had a article in Fur-Fish-Game that was similar but he recommended the opening to be 6′ from the ground.

Effective dog safe alternative methods exist and are used by tens of thousands of trapper in MN and other states as well as in Canada.

I understand John and I know body grips aren’t used for Coyotes, its snares and footholds mostly. It the subject of trapping and the way its being done right now that I was talking about. Its going to be hard to change any the rules when it comes to private land owners to do what hunting dog owners want them to do. Why would someone want to change the way their doing things and have been doing those things, just to benefit a small group of hunting dog owners, when their dogs aren’t supposed to be doing what the owner should want them to do in the first place.

Don’t you think its a little wiser for the dog owners to be in control of their dogs then to make others change their habits to the dog owners liking. I’m speaking for farmers right now because Its so easy to get out before hand and check an area out and ask questions for the dogs safety, then to make others change for their needs, its up to the dogs owner to do that, not the trapper or a farmer, farming his own land.

Asking the trappers to put aside their types of traps and buy new ones just to benefit hunting dog owners is too much to ask for in this area, when its up to the dogs owner to make sure the area he’s hunting in is safe for his dog. If the farmers land or the adjoining farm is being trapped don’t take the dog there, its that easy. A hunting dog owner can’t expect all farmers and landowners to change just for their dogs, advice is, find another farm where there’s no trapping taking place, not all areas are being trapped.

In the last few days I’ve stopped by a few farms and asked about trapping. They all said I could trap and they also said they see coons constantly. Two of the farmers said they have farm cats to keep down the mice and rats and asked what I could do about that. My answer was I could use live traps and shoot the coons there. They did say that was just around their buildings and on the other side of their land I could use what I wanted. One farmer said that they had farrow cats that wouldn’t come near his buildings and to please trap those because the pheasant and rabbit population was low and he chuckeled when he said it because his son and friends occasionally hunted and they were saying pheasant and rabbit populations were down, but they were seeing farrow cats.

Most farmers here don’t have hunters coming and asking permission to hunt their land, just because there’s way more farms and small acreages and hobby farms then hunting dog owners, so why would anyone want to make those farmers change their habits on the way their running their farms when hunting rarely take place on them to begin with, it just doesn’t make sense.

When it comes to public land and its uses here’s my thoughts. There’s guys out there trapping because they want to for many reasons, enjoyment of being outdoors and doing something they like and making some extra money besides and to keep populations in check so disease and vehicle accidents are also kept in check, there’s a lot or reasons. Its just as easy for a dog owner to find a private farm or some land somewhere for his dog owner to hunt on that he considers safe, as it is to ask everyone involved in trapping to change their habits for them.

I have to ask if its unreasonable to ask trappers to change their ways on public land for the benefit of hunting dog owners. To me and a lot of others its like asking hunting dog owners to change their ways of doing things to benefit trappers. The situation is, its a two way street because both are sharing and using the same area. The trapper doesn’t want to see a dog in his trap and the owner doesn’t either. Is it unreasonable to ask a trapper to trap 4′ too 6′ off the ground when the dog owner is using that same area that the trapper has a right to be do what he’s doing too. Is it the trappers fault if a dog gets caught in a body hold when trapping on the ground or waters edge is the most effective way to get that animal instead of the tree set which would be less effective. To me the dogs owner could have found a safer place to hunt where there’s no trapping taking place because its not that hard to find that place, maybe not where you live but here it isn’t.

I for one can see numbers dropping on the amount of coons id take if I had to set 4′ too 6′ off the ground. Coons spend most of their time on the ground running all night and searching for food. They den in trees but spend most of their time on the ground when feeding. I’ve never trapped trees but I would say that my numbers would drop just because of the feeding habits of coons and the amount of boxes Id have to transport to each tree.

A lot of those farmers and land owners don’t have hunting dogs so they have nothing to worry about and if they did and trapping was taking place on their land they would watch their dogs. One farmer said that his pet dogs always stay around the house and buildings and that trapping on their back 40 shouldn’t be a problem and to go ahead and trap.

What’s being asked is to change the laws in general to only benefit hunting dog owners for a just incase situation, just incase being incase they stop and ask permission to hunt that farm and that’s just to unreasonable to ask for. Farmers and land owners are going to do what they want to do on their farms and could care less about what hunting dog owners want them to do so they can hunt maybe 4 or 5 weekends a year. Its more important to them to keep doing the things their doing instead of changing just to benefit hunting dog owners, its their farms not the hunting dog owners farm and they don’t have any say so at all and some farmers would probably turn hunting dog owners down saying the reason is that their farms are being trapped right then.

If a hunting dog owner is looking for a safe place to hunt, stop and ask questions, things shouldn’t be lumped into a rule that effects everyone that’s not even involved in hunting, especially someone else’s hunting.

Bottom line is the trappers are doing something that endangers others while the dog owners are not, therefore the responsibility should be on the trappers. Rambling attempts to justify poor trapping practices by aligning trappers with farmers is completely void of logic. I was never an anti trapper but you have gone a long way towards turning me into one. Fyi wild cats are feral not Farrow.

The public land vs private land issue isn’t just about farmers and it isn’t just about hunting dogs. It encompasses all land and all dogs.

Just today I spoke with a woman who was caring for some puppies. Her neighbors dog disappeared yesterday afternoon. It just so happens that yesterday was the start of our bobcat season. My first thought was that the lab smelled something and tracked down the source. That source could very well have been a baited and lured body grip trap. A lab was killed just that way in Crow Wing County on Dec 30, 2012 after it was lured onto private property. It was the second dog to be killed that day in our county.

And once again. No one is telling you that you can’t continue to use body grips. I intend on continuing to use mine but would never consider putting one on the ground. We are only saying to stop killing dogs with them. That can be done with elevated body grips on either pole sets or the vertical box set I described.

When trappers stop killing dogs with body grips Dog Lovers goes away but until that day we have no choice but to continue to move legislation forward and to build support among the 2 million MN dog owners. Next year will will have a booth at the state fair. I expect that we will educate a lot of metro dog owners and find a lot of support for the changes needed.

Yellowdog and John, Its very unreasonable to ask someone to do something that doesn’t effect a hunters dog at all, this sounds like the anti hunting people wanting to completely stop all hunting practices, what you guys are saying its an all or nothing proposal and that’s not right.

Wanting to make new rules for farmers to abide by just to benefit hunting dog owners, statewide, is forcing those rules onto someone that doesn’t need to change and has no legitimate use for them. Here where there’s very little public hunting land and trying to force the remaining 99% of the landowners like farmers and the people who own acreages and hobby farms that don’t have anything to do with hunting, is just to unreasonable to ask for when hunting has nothing to do with them, isn’t that totalitarianism that we’ve been taught isn’t good for society in general.

When it comes to trapping on public land I can see there’s a problem with dogs being caught in traps, either hunting dogs or dogs that ran out the door from an owners house, but is that the trappers fault. No one can completely control all the situations throughout their life and we don’t like it but it happens. I know hunting dog owners want a safe environment when they take their dogs hunting on public land but asking trappers to accommodate them is like trappers asking hunting dog owners not to take their dogs to public hunting areas for the trappers benefit, its hard to do both. I don’t want to see trappers looses any rights and I don’t want to see hunting dogs get killed, I’ve owned 3 of them, a lab and two Brittneys, I just can’t see making trappers change their ways to accommodate another group when it should be a two way street, what’s the hunting dog group going to give up, anything?

Beings its a mutual use area doesn’t that involve us putting up with the needs of the other person that we may not agree with. In a perfect world we could dictate what we want but the way I see it because its a mutual use area, we shouldn’t define the needs of others to accommodate our own because its a public use area.

Down here coon hounds occasionally climb trees treeing coons so now there’s going to be new rules made on how to make tree sets for the occasional hound that climbs trees? I can’t see either group demanding of the other when its public use, which means where everybodys needs are involved. I don’t want to give up any rights and I don’t expect anyone to meet a trappers needs either, what if trappers wanted hunting dog owners to stay away from public hunting while their trapping.

You do understand that this is a MN issue don’t you?

I don’t understand your insistence that hunters give up something in order for trappers to stop killing their dogs. That makes no sense to me.

yellowdog wrote:

Bottom line is the trappers are doing something that endangers others while the dog owners are not, therefore the responsibility should be on the trappers. Rambling attempts to justify poor trapping practices by aligning trappers with farmers is completely void of logic. I was never an anti trapper but you have gone a long way towards turning me into one. Fyi wild cats are feral not Farrow.

Exactly!

When issues like this come along it jumps from state to state, If I’m right this is the way its being done in all of the Canadian provinces isn’t it and a few states here in the U.S.

Trappers have already made concessions, unwantedly, but they did it anyway. They now can’t use any 330’s above ground, and there’s also rules on how deep they have to set their traps under water, that’s two concessions now that I know of.

Public use areas are just that, if a hunter suspects there may be danger there for his dog then maybe the best choice is for the hunter to find a safer place to hunt. I for one am for leaving things the way they are and leave it up to the owners of dogs to make their mind up.

Some of the dogs were caught in unpropperly set traps, both hunting dogs and dogs that ran out the door of someone’s house, Are any of these things coming from a trapper that’s done the right things so hunters dogs can hunt safely. Laws shouldn’t be changed to make it harder for the trapper that’s not breaking any laws. During that 3 too 4 month time that trapping takes place I think its wise to keep an eye open for the safety of your animals.

I also thought about this yesterday, how many farmers and land owners in both the states Of Minnesota and Wisconsin have family members that trap. How many of those farms and land owners are there going to be of the mindset that if these rules are passed are now not going to allow someone knocking on their door wanting to hunt with their dog or dogs. How many more farms now are going to be turning away dog owners because they want to do it the way they have been doing it for years in the past.

Lets say I had a farm in Minnesota and had a family member or two trapping occasionally and had all my old equipment around the farm that I trapped with. Now a group comes along and wants to tell me how to trap my farm or the land I own. I find out that a well intent hunting dog group wants to change the laws so all trappers, and now including me and the ones that occasionally trap my farm, now may have to change the way we trap. We find out that its because the group doesn’t want their dogs to get caught in a body grip trap and all of this is done with well intentions. I think I can safely say that those farmers are going to say they aren’t going to change, and now its going to be even harder for those hunting dog owners to find a place to hunt. This may cause more of a storm then hunting dog owners ever wanted. I for one would want to leave things the way they are and try to find a safe place to hunt or the availability of land to those hunters may and probably will dwindle. Sometimes its best to just let things be the way they are, because it benefits everybody instead of a select few.

That’s my thoughts and now I am going to refrain from any other comments, I can’t see any good at all coming from what a hunting dog group wants, except a lot of closed doors that were previously open to them.

The parallels between this argument and gun control are amazing. Or modifying seasons to avoid the rut.

I still say that persons who put dogs on public areas are responsible to keep control of their animals. Other people may be using the same public area as you for an entirely different reason and YOU and YOUR dog have no just cause to interfere with those other parties. What if YOUR dog picks a fight with a smaller dog while both are hunting and YOUR dog kills the other. The whole issue will come down to whether YOU had CONTROL of YOUR dog. It isn’t any different than if you took your dog to a city park and let it run, only to have it bite a child. Or maybe even run out in a street chasing a rabbit and get schmucked. Is it the child’s parents fault your dog it the kid? Is it the driver of the car that hit your animal at fault? Your dog, public area. Control your animals in these public hunting venues because others have as much right to use them as you do. If you cared for the dog, really honestly cared, then you make sure you knew where that animal was all of the time when you are in the field with it.

I bird hunted many years behind a dog and loved the sport. I still love dogs, but I also see exactly how trappers can be alarmed at this. I’d guess that the trappers who are involved here at IDO are every bit as law abiding and those people here at IDO who hunt public areas with dogs. The dog guys want the trappers to change…what are the dog guys willing to change? Maybe hunt their dogs on leashes on public areas? Seems like a fair trade to me.

Mocha wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>yellowdog wrote:</div>
Bottom line is the trappers are doing something that endangers others while the dog owners are not, therefore the responsibility should be on the trappers. Rambling attempts to justify poor trapping practices by aligning trappers with farmers is completely void of logic. I was never an anti trapper but you have gone a long way towards turning me into one. Fyi wild cats are feral not Farrow.

Exactly!

Based on the way this post is titled and the rhetoric used in some of the arguments… I wonder if this wasn’t the intent from the beginning.

How many dogs are killed by body grip traps per year?

Now contrast that to how many dogs are starved to death by bad owners? How many dogs are shot for disobedience? I bet the #’s aren’t close. There are much worse ways that people intentionally kill dogs everyday… But that is glossed over because this story involves EVIL TRAPPERS

Seems to me like a pretty specific anti-trapping vendetta when this was posted…

youngfry, I agree very much. Varying opinions and that won’t change.

How about attacking the flipp’n jack@zz that places an illegal set – PERIOD.
Regardless of how many laws are written and passed, you will always have a very small percentage of the population that thinks they are above the law. They are the ones that create the issues. Not different than trying to ban “high capacity magazines” to prevent school shootings. In the grand scheme of things, these shootings are very rare, but look how the media and other people react. Make more laws, for law abiding citizens to follow. But what do you do to get the NON LAW ABIDING people to follow societies’ rules????

Randy Wieland wrote:

How about attacking the flipp’n jack@zz that places an illegal set – PERIOD.
Regardless of how many laws are written and passed, you will always have a very small percentage of the population that thinks they are above the law. They are the ones that create the issues. Not different than trying to ban “high capacity magazines” to prevent school shootings. In the grand scheme of things, these shootings are very rare, but look how the media and other people react. Make more laws, for law abiding citizens to follow. But what do you do to get the NON LAW ABIDING people to follow societies’ rules????

Ding,Ding, Ding….there’s a winner!

Exactly Randy. And Youngfry.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Randy Wieland wrote:</div>
How about attacking the flipp’n jack@zz that places an illegal set – PERIOD.
Regardless of how many laws are written and passed, you will always have a very small percentage of the population that thinks they are above the law. They are the ones that create the issues. Not different than trying to ban “high capacity magazines” to prevent school shootings. In the grand scheme of things, these shootings are very rare, but look how the media and other people react. Make more laws, for law abiding citizens to follow. But what do you do to get the NON LAW ABIDING people to follow societies’ rules????

Ding,Ding, Ding….there’s a winner!

Exactly Randy. And Youngfry.

x2 Finally!!!

Mark

youngfry wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Stinkycat wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>yellowdog wrote:</div>
Bottom line is the trappers are doing something that endangers others while the dog owners are not, therefore the responsibility should be on the trappers. Rambling attempts to justify poor trapping practices by aligning trappers with farmers is completely void of logic. I was never an anti trapper but you have gone a long way towards turning me into one. Fyi wild cats are feral not Farrow.

Exactly!

Based on the way this post is titled and the rhetoric used in some of the arguments… I wonder if this wasn’t the intent from the beginning.

How many dogs are killed by body grip traps per year?

Now contrast that to how many dogs are starved to death by bad owners? How many dogs are shot for disobedience? I bet the #’s aren’t close. There are much worse ways that people intentionally kill dogs everyday… But that is glossed over because this story involves EVIL TRAPPERS

Seems to me like a pretty specific anti-trapping vendetta when this was posted…

Young fry…. have you actually read all the posts?

I have stated as well as others that we are not against trapping but just want our dogs to not to get killed by an intentionally set trap on public land while we also enjoy the public land for bird hunting. Your examples of other worse ways that dogs are killed is totally ridiculous. No body has said any trappers are evil unless I missed that post.

I want you to tell me how I endanger anyone or anyones property when I go hunting on public land?????

On the contrary trapping with these types/sizes/sets traps on public land can and DO kill hunting/family dogs every year. There was one dog killed 30 miles north and one dog killed 30 miles south of where I live in the last few months. So I guess what your saying is the trappers, all 8-10,000, should have the right to endanger/kill the hunting dogs of all 91,000+ grouse hunters and 97,000 pheasant hunters along with 900,000+ family pet/dog owners in the state of MN on public land????

How many are willing to agree that all the old hunters back in the day took their dogs out into the field and didn’t worry about much because they knew the odds of their dog getting caught in a trap was very nill to none, and for the whole season. I think what I’m hearing and correct me if I’m wrong but I hear an honest and concerned crowd that has dogs that are concerned about their dogs safety and I understand the concern, I really do, but.

Concessions have been made to accommodate the hunting dog group by rules on 330’s and underwater sets, how much more do they want. I look at it this way,,,I now have to change my trapping techniques, beings I can no longer run bank sets where 90% of my coon come from. I can no longer run any set where a dog may run and you have to remember coon hounds chase coons everywhere they are, not where they aren’t and that’s close to water. I could go on an articulate very many positions, scenarios and everything involved that we do, and to just give those up for a just incase situation for a group that wants pristine hunting situations is just too much to ask for and is very unreasonable to say the least.

I’m going to say this and some may not like to hear it but here goes. The way I see it is I don’t care if a guy has a half million dollars wrapped up in a dog that’s trophyed and is one of the best in his hunting class, my dog Zach was close to that In his hunting and achievement ability, don’t laugh because I would have put Zach up against any dog in America hunting rabbits and pointing them.

What gives them the right to take away a young guys way of trapping, his families tradition of trapping and the way they have been doing things for a couple hundred years just to make his, the dog owners hunt safe for his dog. If a guys got a half million dollar dog what in the heck is he doing on public ground where there may be traps anyway. I know those guys want to hunt where they want to, but, there are others involved in society other then them and when it comes to that it doesn’t really matter what those guys want.

Heres a situation that I could only think of at this moment. What if a guy was training his lab and his lab got caught on a trotline that a fishermen set to feed his family, the hooks having barbs on them. The dogs owner stood onshore and watched his dog try to get free but couldn’t because of the barbs. The dog finally succumbed to the situation and so now what,,,Is the hunting dog crowd going to try to ban barbs on trotline hooks just to please the hunting dogs owners. It sounds to me like some hunters aren’t willing to take a chance and hunt right along with what everyone else is doing,,,and doing this only to make their scenario mare comfortable to them.

Sure we love our dogs and have a lot of time in them but does that mean we have to outlaw Johnny down the street thats feeding his grandmother from that trotline, or a situation where body grips are necessary on a riverbank where he has to set them to feed his grandmother or help her pay her taxes.

As far as I’m concerned a dog is here to serve humans and his family and that’s the way it is. We have to try to keep them safe so we have them for tomorrow to hunt for us and to use their abilities to feed us,,,but we shouldn’t put a dogs safety over a human need of another.

I don’t think hunting dog groups would do well trying to get laws passed where all those involved would have to change their hunting and trapping routines Just to make some, more comfortable. I do know one thing and I think I speak for some,,,If I ever have a farm or acreage and a group of dog owners come and ask to hunt,,,The first thing I’m going to say is what do you think of bodyholds. If the answer is I’m glad they tried to ban them,,,I’m going to say then this farm isn’t for you to hunt on.

all 8-10,000, should have the right to endanger/kill the hunting dogs of all 91,000+ grouse hunters and 97,000 pheasant hunters along with 900,000+ family pet/dog owners in the state of MN on public land????

I think this has the potential of falling off the cliff soon

#’s are skewed – of 10,000 trappers, how many actually trap on public land specifically in an area that is know for bird hunting? Not very many! Not many coon will be running in areas of high concentrations of dog urine. Trappers that do public land are most often in more obscure areas. Now the D.B. that wouldn’t follow a law anyways is of a high probability to place illegal sets well within areas of dog traffic because they couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag.

As for the #’s of bird hunters – How many of them will never step onto public land??? A lot. I’m not saying half, a quarter, or any specific number to it. but i personally know a hell of a lot of guys that won’t step foot on public land. Why? Because of other hunters that need to drink a beer for breakfast, shoot now/look later tactics, and simply don’t want to put up with the pathetic low life scum hunters that embarrass the good guys.

“I want you to tell me how I endanger anyone or anyones property when I go hunting on public land?????”
Not directed at you as a specific individual, because I don’t know you. But what I do know is I am so God Dam fed up with lousy piece of sh1t so called hunters that have trespassed on my land. For years I have had to clean up the beer bottles, broken glass, beer cans, condom wrappers, and all the othe bullcrap “you” hunters leave on my land. “You” have shot holes in every one of my no trespassing signs. “You” have vandalized my treestands. “You” have cut the supporting chains and cables for my ladderstands, cut my fenses, cut trees/saplings of which in a Forestry program. “You” have cut the hydrolic hoses on my tractors. “You” have shot deer, walked up to them, and left them to rot. “You” peppered my truck with bird shot.
But worst of all, “YOU” put a frick’n bullet directly above my daughters head in the tree we were sitting in.
All from the 20 acres of public land that bordered my property. After about 15 years, I almost couldn’t sell it cheap enough. So after having THREE incidents with shot and bullets hitting our vehicles while occupied and our treestand while occupied all from so called hunters while on the public land, don’t urine and moan to me about not being a threat. I recognize there are some good ethical hunters that visit public land. But there are some seriously deranged frick’n people that have their head so far up their azz and they are the ones making “YOU” look bad. Don’t play the innocent Cinderella crap with me. Deer hunters, waterfowlers, trappers, bird hunters, small gamers,…whatever ALL have bad apples in their basket. WE need to get all of them tossed out

I blame Global Warming

Good way to lighten things up

Randy,

I feel your pain with bad slob hunters. I think we all can agree that in all outdoor sports we have the “bad apples” including hunters as well as trappers. And yes we all need to do our part to eliminate them to keep our outdoor sports intact.

My final comments on this thread.

The thread was originally posted by me to bring attention to a trapping practice that unintentionally kills hunting/family dogs of which two were killed this fall by these traps within the areas I hunt. There is nothing a hunter can do to keep their dog safe from these trap/sets if their dog stumble on to them on public land except to not go hunting on public land. Do we not all have the same rights to enjoy our public land equally without harm to ourselves or property?

SO what can we do to solve this problem?
Answer #1-all hunters that hunt with dogs will ONLY hunt on private land where they know there are no traps or not hunt at all. Answer #2 trappers can change there method to dog safe trapping practices like many other states and Canada.

PS: I have hunted in N MN for over 35 years and have yet to have a shot come close to me. I have found garbage and have run into slob hunters that don’t believe the laws are for them. I have just this week been talking to a ND game warden about one such individual who is nothing but a slob hunter and yes he also traps.

Do hunting dog owners honestly realize how much trappers and their trapping habits are going to have to change to accommodate them. If this topic ever gains steam down here I know a lot of farmers aren’t going to change and are just going to turn their noses up and say, well we just won’t let any hunting dog owners on our land, believe me their not going to change, period.

This is severely going to rub a lot of people down here the wrong way and I’m willing to say, watch what happens. The Iowa DNR knows what’s going on down here with this topic and that’s why they limited to use of 330’s,,,but I know it will be when hell freezes over when they even consider changing trapping any further or they already would have.

Down here there’s plenty of places for dog owners to hunt other then public land and the DNR knows this so why would they want to change the way things are happening now, they won’t. I’m outta here for good.

I been watching the thread since it was posted. This was going to be a controversial thread from the get go… the moment it was given that title. The more trappers tried to defend themselves the more people piled on. What you’re missing is that trappers, bird hunters, deer hunters, fisherman, etc… we’re all in the same fight, or at least we should be. But I’ve seen this too many times… and I’m not that old… that while deer hunters quibble about bowhunting vs gun hunting, and your quibbling about trapping vs bird hunting… other entities seize that momentum to push through laws that hurt us all. READ what Randy said again… making a law only applies to the % of people that are following the law. There will still be people that do what they want regardless and the problem remains (Right BK #AIS Laws)… yet the law abiding folks are the ones with the noose tightened. Do I want to see any hunting dogs killed in traps? NO!!!!!! But when I read this thread… I see one side, dog owners, pointing fingers saying this is a trapper problem. To me, like most problems, there is two sides and it takes BOTH to make a viable solution. This thread alone has at least 2-3 guys that said they are now anti-trapping just by reading it. Really?

Trappers do more for bird hunting than any of you want to admit. Don’t believe me… read this… its one of many studies proving the same thing.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3799541?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104749295811

Every bird hunter should be applauding trappers and doing everything they can to make sure that trappers are able to keep on trapping. Bird numbers are already facing extreme habitat loss (among other problems) across most of the country. Yet you want to fight trappers? Fine… see how that works out for bird numbers if trapping is stopped.

I know what you said… you’re not anti-trapping. But the rhetoric you used to make your point says otherwise. Saying things like trappers are going around killing thousands of dogs all the time and making trappers out to be murderers and then pouncing on anyone that tries to disagree with you. Remember this is a public forum… anyone can read it. Do you think that jumping up and down and shouting from the roof tops of how trappers are murderers is going to end well? Anyone looking for ammunition against trappers reads this they can say… “See, even hunters don’t think trapping is ethical” even if you were only trying to change a small part of trapping… that will get lost in the argument. The only thing that will matter is that you, a hunter, are against trapping because its cruel. And we’re all one step closer to losing what we love….

Another dog was killed in a trap or snare near Pequot Lakes on opening day of the bobcat season. She left behind a litter of 2 week old pups.

I didn’t see any posts about banning trapping or banning body grips in this thread. There are plenty of dog safe and proven effective ways to trap using body grips and footholds.

Until we trappers stop killing dogs we will continue to make enemies among hunters and especially among non-hunting dog owners. Considering trappers are a very small minority how sensible is that?

Another dog was caught in a legally set 220 in Cass County. The owner ran to the dog and got the trap off pretty fast but according to the partner it took more than 15 minutes of CPR before the dog started breathing on it’s own. The dog appears to be fine but sometimes it takes months or even years before the true effects are seen.

Had the dog been caught in the trap out of sight or hearing it would likely be dead.

Thought of this thread after my lab got caught in a foot-hold trap, placed on public land this morning. Same place we pheasant hunt all year long – spend lots of time out there so it really caught me off guard. Obviously a foot-hold isn’t anything like a body trap but still spooked both myself and the dog. After she got caught, saw a few more footholds placed along the trail (no I didn’t tamper with them but of course there was no identification on the traps…)

Even though I was pretty pissed, short of no ID on the trap I guess they’re technically legal.

Point of my post is that us bird hunters need to take time and become educated on how to remove these traps. I had watched videos on how to remove footholds, snares, and conibears, but never actually touched a trap in my life. Removing the foothold wasn’t rocket science, but trying to do it with a 65lb lab thrashing and biting you while you try to release it made it tougher. Fortunately a foot-hold doesn’t cut off air to the dog so my learning curve didn’t compromise the dogs life.

Not for or against trapping, just remember reading this thread a month ago thinking – hell I’ve never saw a trap in all the time I’ve run the dog. Well… She found one.

I would report the placement of these traps to the DNR if they aren’t tagged.

They were not leagilly set if they don’t have tags on them. report the traps to the co.
Stan

It s not global warming it is climate change untill its named global adversity.
Holy crud! Everybody feel better now? We all have to unload at times.
The shoulders IDO gives us are appreciated.

Public land. If the traps were legal than that is the risk you take. Is what it is. Sad though. But whats next outlawing barbed wire? I think in this day and age wed best stick together.

Mocha wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
Sorry, you’re entitled to your opinion, but that does not justify you stealing someone’s property. Oh, and by the way, in addition to theft, interfering with legal hunting, fishing, and trapping activities is a crime in itself.

Stealing from someone engaged in a legal activity makes you nothing but a thief. It’s not a protest because it does nothing to change the law.

Grouse

For the record I was just being sarcastic. I have never removed a trap/taken/stolen or any thing else except When I do find one, body grip, on public land I trip the trap and leave it be.

I am just glad that you were only being sarcastic about stealing and are only guilty of trap tampering.