Crack down on traps

Thanks to Rich Landers for highlighting the dangers that traps pose to nature lovers and their pets (“Dogs vulnerable to Idaho wolf traps,” Dec. 15). Gabrielle Duebendorfer’s dog suffered terribly when its neck was caught in a snare next to the road in an area without signs signaling the presence of traps.

The high usage and lax standards for barbaric leghold traps and snares result in a huge threat to public safety and animal welfare. Trapped animals suffer immensely from their injuries, long periods of distress and usually a sad death. As the Deubendorfer story demonstrates, traps are indiscriminate, so many non-targeted animals are injured or die as collateral damage, including endangered species and family pets.

Born Free USA maintains a database of trapping incidents that details hundreds of tragic instances of pets severely injured or killed. Just earlier this month, a dog was caught in a leg-hold trap along his guardian’s fence line in Howe, Idaho.

Outlawing traps, at least within a wide margin of popular trails, would be a crucial step toward ending this cruelty. For the sake of domestic and wild animals alike, I hope legislators will consider compassionate legislation to prohibit or severely limit trapping opportunities in Idaho.

Kate Dylewsky

Sacramento, Calif.