Anja Heister’s commentary on June 22 correctly pointed out the inaccuracies of Thomas Zwick’s June 15 commentary regarding trapping on public lands.
I’d like to speak from a more personal level. My dad trapped in the Beartooth Mountains in the 1930s and 1940s as a way to supplement the family income, but by the time I took up the craft in the 1960s it was for recreation. I followed my dad’s rules, trapping only on our own land and checking my trapline daily to make sure animals did not suffer needlessly.
But what I found was that animals do suffer with leg hold traps, regardless of how often you check your trapline. In their frantic efforts to escape the pain and trauma of being caught, they make difficult choices, including sometimes chewing off their own legs to escape.
Several years into my trapping, I caught a family…
View original post 68 more words
Exposing the Big Game 