INUVIK - A resident who runs a babysitting business from her home is angry about finding two steel leg traps on a walking trail just 61 metres from her doorstep, and is accusing the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) officers of setting the devices irresponsibly.

Donna Ballas is shown with her dog Lady last month on a trail near her home where she found this baited trap. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

On Oct. 30 Donna Ballas set off for a walk from her Navy Road home with her dog Lady. Ballas said she noticed a trail of blood as the pair walked down Lagoon Road which leads to the walking path.

The blood led to an area just near the walking trail where she found a baited fox trap.

"There was a paper towel over some sardines and so I just kicked it and the trap just slammed shut," she said.

Just metres away was another open trap, which she also disengaged. Ballas figures the blood came from an animal who was caught in the leg trap but managed to get away with the device clamped to its leg.

"I just don't understand why anyone would set these traps so close to people's homes and where children and adults frequent," she said. "I have gone for walks here with the children I look after. What would happen if they got caught in one of those traps?"

Ballas kept both traps and complained to an employee of ENR about the incident but she said she got no answers. On a couple occasions she said she's seen ENR officers driving to the location, where she assumed they tended to the traps.

Toby Halle, Inuvik renewable resource officer, admitted the department has set traps in that area before but couldn't say for sure whether the ones Ballas found there belonged to them.

He did add there are no longer traps in the area.

Halle said there are a "few" fox traps currently set in town but wouldn't say where they are approximately located.

Though he said traps are usually set around areas where residents complain about fox sightings, they are far enough away from where people frequent.

Every year the department deals with rabid foxes. So far officers have destroyed three animals, which were caught in traps, but none of them had rabies.

"We set traps throughout the year for foxes," he said. "Lots of people litter and that attracts wild animals of course. We wind up taking care of the problem and it's a public safety concern."

Officers use both live and leg traps, which he said are checked first thing every morning and the animals caught are immediately killed.

Ballas wonders why the live traps, a more humane way of catching the animals, can't be used. Another options she said is vaccinating the animals and setting them free away from town.

Halle said it's very difficult to catch a fox in a live trap and the effort of vaccinating and transporting them isn't worth the effort.

"It's seems like an awful expense and hassle for foxes," he said.

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