Dispute between fur trapper and dog owner ends up in Alaska’s federal court

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By:James Brooks-January 19, 20265:21 am

https://alaskabeacon.com/briefs/dispute-between-fur-trapper-and-dog-owner-ends-up-in-alaskas-federal-court/

Fall foliage is seen on Sept. 14, 2017, along the Kenai River in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge has been at the center of a state-federal debate over baiting of brown bears. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

 Fall foliage is seen on Sept. 14, 2017, along the Kenai River in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Two dog-walking Soldotna residents are fighting a pair of unusual federal fines after getting in an argument with a fur trapper in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge last year.

Laura McIndoe and Trafford Evanoff appeared in federal court Tuesday this week to enter “not guilty” pleas and formally challenge $280 per-person tickets issued by a refuge officer for interfering with an authorized trap line. Further hearings are scheduled for later in the spring.

McIndoe did not return a phone call Friday afternoon. 

Conflicts between dog walkers and fur trappers are not unusual in Alaska despite efforts to avoid them, but federal citations are rare, according to a search of online court records. 

The citations facing McIndoe and Evanoff do not identify the trapper, who was not fined. The injured dog also was not named.

According to the citations, the trapper called a Fish and Wildlife Service officer after McIndoe’s dog became caught in one of the trapper’s foothold traps and McIndoe became “very upset and cursed at him, telling him to stay away.”

“He said the woman told him that her sons were in their 30s and big men, and if they see him, they will kill him,” said the affidavit, signed by officer Shay Hurd. 

Two of the trapper’s other traps were destroyed, and the trap that snared the dog was lost. 

According to Hurd’s affidavit, McIndoe said “the dog was doing better” two weeks after the incident, “after a large vet bill.”

The trapper had a permit to work within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, correctly marked their trap line with a warning sign, and placed the trap line in a valid area more than one mile away from the road, according to Hurd’s account.

McIndoe was cited for “interfering with persons engaged in authorized activities” in the refuge, as was Evanoff, who was identified as her son. 

2 thoughts on “Dispute between fur trapper and dog owner ends up in Alaska’s federal court”

  1. Trapper harms dog and it’s the victims who get fined. Typical…
    The trapper? Gets to walk free without so much as the trivial formality of a paltry fine for animal cruelty.

    Oh…because hunting and trapping – no matter what the target is, intended or not – isn’t covered by animal cruelty law in Alaska. Sick of these subhumans getting away with things that would put anyone else in jail.

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