Trapped fox running free ignites concern
Resident calls for proper trapping techniques after spotting animal outside of town with trap attached to paw
Erin Steele
Northern News Services
Published Friday, February 14, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A fox spotted limping on three legs with a trap attached to its fourth was put down by wildlife officers Wednesday. The episode has one upset woman calling for people to ensure they set their traps properly.
A fox, much like this one, was put down this week after it was spotted with a trap attached to its paw. A Yellowknife woman said she is concerned about proper trapping techniques after seeing the animal. - NNSL file photo |
Long-time Yellowknife resident Kara Dennill was driving with her husband about 25 minutes outside Yellowknife heading toward Behchoko to set some traps herself, when they saw what they thought was a wolf curled up on the side of the highway.
"When he got up he was dragging his leg and we could see a silver trap stuck on his front paw and he had no usage of his leg," said Dennill.
Into hunting, trapping and snaring herself, she worries the trap was set incorrectly because of the chain's length.
"That chain was really long, it was jingling and every time he tried to run you could see the chain flip up," she said.
"I think people should be aware how to set traps so wildlife will not have to suffer like that," she said.
Dennill says when she sets a snare at night, she is back first thing in the morning to check it.
"It's sad, but I like my meat and I know how to set traps correctly," she said.
Wildlife officers responded and caught the fox Wednesday using a live trap, but had to put the animal down due to its poor condition.
"It just wouldn't have survived, so for humane reasons it was put down," said Judy McLinton, manager of public affairs and communication with GNWT's Environment and Natural Resources.
She says it was a legal trap, but officers couldn't determine whether or not it was set incorrectly.
"We just remind trappers to make sure they're setting their trap properly and they're checking their trap lines regularly," said McLinton.
It is legal to trap, but trappers must use a soft-catch trap, rather than a steel-jawed variety of days past. Under regulation, traps must also be checked every 72 hours.
Poorly set traps are not a common issue in the North
Slave Region - which includes Yellowknife, the Tlicho communities and east to the Nunavut border - according to Adrian Lizotte, a renewable resource officer II with the ENR's North Slave Region.
"This is the first one that I've come across and I've been a wildlife officer for almost four years," he said.
If wildlife officers get tipped off to illegal trapping activity they will complete an investigation that could end up in the territorial court system, says Lizotte.
"In my knowledge in the past four years in our region, no one's gone to court over using illegal traps," he said.
There will be no further investigation into this particular incident.
