THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

DECEMBER 1976 — JANUARY 1977

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About three million fur-
bearing animals are trapped
each year in Canada through
the use of the leg-hold trap, a
device that in most instances
inflicts a horrible death on the
poor creatures unfortunate
enough to be caught.

The primitive leg-hold trap is
the main method of catching
fur-bearing animals in Canada
and the trap has changed little
in two hundred years. It
operates through a powerful
spring clamp which, when
stepped on by an animal, is
released and closes on the leg.

When caught, the animal
stays alive in the trap in in-
discrible pain, sometimes as

was caught in the trap.

long as three weeks, before
death puts it out of its misery.
Some animals, because of the
pain, chew their leg off to
escape the trap but the
resulting infection and reduced
capacity to manage in the
wilderness dooms them to yet
further suffering and certain
death.

It has been estimated that
along with the fur-bearing
animals trapped each year,
some six million ‘‘unwanted’’
animals and birds are ac-
cidently caught and die
needlessly because of the
continued use of this dreadful

trap.

JOIN THE A.P.F.A. NOW!

‘YOU CAN HELP PREVENT
THIS NEEDLESS SUFFERING

oes 2 £3 <a +i
THIS RACCOON died in utter agony from the gangrene

_ 'THIS BEAVER chewed his two front legs off to escape the
_ Greadful pain the leg-hold trap inflicts. ;

In British Columbia alone,
approximately thirty thousand
squirrels die an agonizing
death each year, because of
these traps.

Mr. Frank Conibear, a well-
known trapper, gives the
following account of the death
agony of animals he has
trapped:

“On the twelfth day we start
back over our line to look at the
traps we set almost two weeks
ago. In the first trap we find a
mink’s foot. The area about the
trap is all bashed about and
chewed up by the mink in its
effort to escape. The mink is a
tough :animal that struggles

violently, attempting by jerks
and pulls to get loose.

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“It writhes and _ twists
desperately, and bites at
everything within reach, and
continues until it is exhausted.
After a time, from the pressure
of the jaws of the trap, and the
swelling of the leg from pain,
the circulation of blood stops
and the foot becomes numb,
but the pain above it in the
swollen leg and shoulder must
increase, and the mink must be
in great agony. The foot will
freeze. This may be in a few
hours or a day, depending
mostly on the weather. After
the foot becomes numb or
frozen, the mink, desperately
savage with pain, will chew at
it.

which set in days after the animal .

“Sometimes it will chew the
toes off underneath the jaws of
the trap and be able to pull the
foot out. At other times it will
chew at the leg itself above the
jaws of the trap, and by
chewing and twisting will (if it
does not freeze to death first)
sometimes after several days,
especially if the bone has been
broken, sever the last sinew
holding leg and foot together,
and escape.

“The next trap has a silver
fox. It has died in the trap —
curled up in a ball, its tail
covering its feet. It had sought
refuge from the cold by curling
itself up, and had died in its
sleep; if that comatose con-
dition can be called sleep, that

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Photo— Monteray SPCA
does not obliterate

the
penetrating cold that goes to
the very marrow of the bones
and the pit of the stomach, and
the pain of a wrenched, swollen
and frozen leg — and let no one
tell you freezing is not painful.

“The next trap has a mink. It
is dead — died in the trap. The
pen we built has been knocked
down, and there are teeth
marks on all the sticks and
branches within range. There
are signs of.a terrific struggle;
from experience I know the
mink lived about three or four
days and then died of hunger
and pain. The foot is lacerated,
swollen and covered with

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MILLIONS of small animals like this squirrel die a hideous
death each year from these leg-hold traps.

blood. The stump of the leg
above the trap is swollen four
times its normal size, and
frozen. The shoulder, too, is all
swollen. When we skin it we
will find that all that area will
be a mass of blood-coloured,
sickly, gelatine-like substance,
indicating the terrible suf-
fering it has gone through
before death released it. The
trap is slowly severing the last
shreds of the sinews, and then,
with escape only a few hours
away, the mink died. It is
stretched out as it threw itself
in the last spasm, and frozen
hard and stiff.”

In 1942, a small group of
people, horrified at the use of
this trap, formed _ the
Association for the Protection
of Fur-Bearing Animals
(A.P.F.A.). The purpose of the
Association was an attempt to
have the federal and provincial

governments outlaw cruel.

trapping methods.

The Association made it
clear at the outset that it was
not the purpose to ban trapping
in Canada. The group knew
that too many people relied on
trapping and the fur industry
for a living to have it abolished.

However, their plea for more
humane methods of trapping

Photo Ed Cesar

went virtually unheeded until
recently. While most levels of
government have paid lip
service of a sort, it took a
documentary showing the
terrible suffering of the
animals to capture public
attention and force stronger
action.

At the moment the provincial
governments contribute $3,000
each a year to study the
problem and seek a solution.
The British Columbia govern-
ment, which made $30,000 from
trapping royalties last year
and expects to boost this to
$90,000 this year, had promised
legislation to ban the leghold-
trap but so far nothing has
been done.

The Association believes that
only strong pressure from the
general public will force
government action on the
matter and is appealling to
everyone to join.

The Association is a
registered charitable organ-
ization and donations are tax
deductible.

Help prevent the needless
suffering of our Wildlife
creatures by filling out the
application for membership

and sending your donation to
the following address:

ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF FUR-BEARING ANIMALS (A.P.F.A.)
1316 E. 12th AVENUE, VANCOUVER, B.C. V5N1Z9

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