Tag Archives: animal cruelty

Another hunter speaks out against trapping

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[From The Montana Standard, April 27, 2014]

I am a hunter in support of I-169. I’m not an animal rights extremist. I grew up in Montana fishing, hunting and gardening with my Dad, and continue to fill my freezer this way each year. I hunt deer for food —not for sport, not for trophies, and not for pride. Like the vast majority of Montana hunters, my Dad taught me the necessity of fair chase, a quick and clean kill, knowing exactly what you’re shooting at, and wasting nothing. Most Montana hunters strive to continue this legacy with every round fired. We practice target shooting, keep our rifles cleaned, oiled and sighted in to be sure that we do have clean kills without waste. These are the ethics of hunting.

Trapping violates these ethics at every point. Animals are diabolically lured into hidden and baited unattended traps. Baiting game animals is illegal because it is not considered fair chase.

Trapped animals are seldom killed quickly. More often than not, they languish for days suffering exposure and predation, waiting to be bludgeoned, drowned, crushed, suffocated, strangled or shot. Offspring suffer and starve from the loss of their mother. So much for a quick and clean kill.

Non-target animals comprise a large percentage of animals trapped, including protected and endangered species. They are maimed or killed, or just left to suffer a prolonged and painful death. Occasionally they’re released, only to die later from their injuries. Although trappers are required to report the trapping of protected species if they can’t be released “unharmed” in the trapper’s opinion, it can’t possibly be enforced, and who would ever know, so why would they bother? So much for knowing your target.

Hunters are legally required to use all edible parts of animals killed, and aren’t allowed to sell meat. Yet for blood money, trappers sell only the fur of only some of the animals killed—just to end up adorning the backs of rap stars and teenaged billionaires. Most species are killed without limit. Carcasses either become bait for catching more victims, or are used to feed the maggots. So much for preventing waste. These are the ethics of trapping.

I-169 is merely a moderate step toward protecting some of Montana’s precious wildlife from the barbaric cruelty and unjustified waste and commercialization of trapping. It applies only to public land, about 1/3 of Montana. Trappers will continue their torturous tactics unhindered on the remaining 2/3 of our state. I-169 isn’t asking too much.

— Annie Reid, 129 Wilhelm Lane, Whitehall

See original article here.

Hunting as conservation: Hunter kills foxes as retaliation against animal activists

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POLICE and RSPCA officers are looking into reports that a fox was beheaded and a picture posted on Facebook in a dispute with anti-hunt campaigners.

The page then carried a chilling threat over any future attempts to have the user banned from the social networking site, declaring: “Any more bans and another fox dies.”

The distressing photograph appeared to show to be the head of decapitated animal on a spike with a anti-hunt sign next to it.

It was uploaded on an individual account in the Hartlepool area.

Above the image was the statement: “I keep my promises, 1 ban = 1 fox.”

Anti-hunt campaigners then took to Facebook claiming the sick act was carried in revenge for the user being banned from Facebook for previous posts which they believed were offensive.

The user then declared that for each Facebook ban he received he would kill one fox.

Another posting from this account read: “I’m back!”

“After three picture bans and the whole profile deleted due to an anti reporting that I’m a “business”?

“So antis, you have cost a fox that was not near a farm or any livestock it’s life. Just for you.

“Any more bans and another fox dies.”

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said: “We can say that we are aware of the post on Facebook and we are looking into whether any offences have been committed.”

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA confirmed that the image had been reported to the organisation.

She said: “We have received reports of images of a decapitated fox being circulated online.

Click HERE for the full story.

Animal cruelty as an indicator of sociopathy

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The Macdonald Triad, also known as the Triad of Sociopathy or the Homicidal Triad, is a metric used to judge one’s propensity for committing violent acts against people, including serial murder and sexual abuse. Animal cruelty is one of the three legs of the Triad, along with arson and chronic bed-wetting past a certain age. The presence of any of these is considered a precursor to violence against people, with animal cruelty the strongest indicator. The FBI believes that many violent offenders first practiced on animals. Jeffery Dahmer, Edmund Kemper, the BTK killer and the Columbine school killers all tortured animals before they turned against people.

Unintended victims

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A key problem with any kind of trap is the lack of discrimination. For every intended victim (“target” animal) of the traps, there are 2 to 10 unintended victims: birds, porcupines, deer, cats, dogs and other animals are caught, maimed and killed in traps.  Even animals listed under the Endangered Species Act are caught and killed. In the industry, these unintended victims are referred to as “trash” animals.  Our wildlife agencies call them “non target” species.  There have also been cases where children were caught in these traps.  Worldwide, about 10 MILLION animals are trapped annually.

Within the first 30 minutes of capture, a trapped animal can tear her flesh, rip tendons, break bones, and even knock out teeth as she bites the trap to escape. Before Sweden banned leg hold traps their government carried out a trapping campaign against foxes. Of the 645 foxes that were trapped, 514 were considered seriously injured. The trapped foxes had struggled desperately to get free, and over 200 of them had knocked out teeth. Some of the foxes had even knocked out 18 teeth as they bit the trap trying to escape. Some animals will even bite off their own limbs in a desperate attempt to escape. The fact that an animal would severe her own limb shows how horrible the experience of being caught in a leg hold trap is. A study in Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge found that 27.6 percent of mink, 24 percent of raccoon, and 26 percent of trapped fox would actually bite their limbs off in hopes of surviving. In many cases the animals died from blood loss, infection, and inability to hunt with an amputated limb. This study was carried out over a 4 year period, and involved many trappers with varying degrees of skill. Therefore, these percentages are fairly indicative of what happens with the various species targeted by Nevada trappers. Another study, conducted in 1980, found that 37 percent of raccoons mutilated themselves when caught in a leg hold trap.

All but two of the U.S. states require traps to be checked in intervals shorter than Nevada’s 96 hours (some states require daily trap checking). Several U.S. states and 88 countries have banned the steel-jawed leg hold trap, which is notorious for its cruelty especially when trappers don’t visit their traps for days or weeks at a time. Many trappers now get around this ban by using other types of traps, including snare traps, conibear traps or leg hold traps with a thin layer of padding added. Once the trapper finds the captured animal, if the animal is still alive, the trapper will usually club or stomp the animal to death. Shooting is not as popular because the trapper would risk damaging the pelt.

Steel Jaw Traps

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Every year, trappers kill 10 million raccoons, coyotes, wolves, bobcats, opossums, nutria, beavers, otters, and other fur-bearing animals. Trappers use various types of traps, including snares and conibear traps, but the steel-jaw trap is the one that’s most widely used. The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns these traps and has classified them as “inhumane.”  In Nevada, these traps are allowed, trappers are only “required” to check there traps once every 4 days, and 50% of trappers admit to not visiting that often.   There is not one scientific report supporting Nevada’s 4-day visitation rule and there is robust evidence suggesting this is too long, causing needless harm and cruelty.

When an animal steps on the steel-jaw trap spring, the trap’s jaws slam shut, clamping down on the animal’s limb or paw. As the animal struggles in excruciating pain to get free, the steel vise cuts into his or her flesh—often down to the bone—mutilating the leg or paw. Some animals, especially mothers desperate to return to their young, will even attempt to chew or twist off their trapped limbs.

Animals often struggle for days before they finally succumb to exhaustion, exposure, frostbite, shock, and death.

Because steel-jaw traps have been banned in 88 countries. Their use is banned or restricted in several U.S. states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington. The European Union has banned the use of steel-jaw traps in Europe and banned the importation of pelts from countries that use these cruel devices to trap and kill fur-bearing animals.