Tag Archives: dogs

Trapping: the Indiscriminate Evil

Posted on by
11

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2012. All Rights Reserved

Footloose Montana reports that the 2012/13 Trapping season has begun, and with it, the first incident of someone’s beloved dog being caught in a trap: “Monte,” a yellow lab cross was injured today in a leg-hold trap set submerged at the Bitterroot River Florence Fishing Access in Florence, Montana.  She survived his ordeal, but suffered an injury on her leg and a broken tooth.  This is sure to be the first of many pet incidents this trapping season.  Particularly with many new trappers pursuing wolves on our public lands this year, please be cognizant of the danger…

I have had more than my share of heart-wrenching experiences with the gruesome evils of trapping. On a walk near our cabin, my dog stepped into a trap that clamped down onto his front paw, prying his middle toes apart. He yelped in horror and frantically tried to shake it off, biting at the trap, at his paw and at me as I fought to open the mindless metal jaws that continued to cut deeper into his tender flesh.

My efforts to release him only caused more excruciating pain. After battling with the unrelenting spring for many interminable minutes, I was finally able to loosen the degenerate device enough to pull his foot free.

Another dog I rescued was caught in two steel-jawed leg-hold traps. One was latched onto her front leg while the second gripped a hind leg, forcing her to remain standing for untold, agonizing hours. Judging by how fatigued and dehydrated she was, she’d been held immobile for several days. The sinister traps caused so much damage that a vet had to amputate one of her injured legs.

Traps are an indiscriminate evil. No animal, wild or domestic, should suffer such torture for the sake of sport, recreation or the mindless pursuit of pelts.

Folks in Montana can Call Footloose at (406) 274-7878 if…

1.      You need advice on releasing your pets from traps

2.      You would like us to do a pet release workshop in your community

3.      You have an incident to report

4.      You have information about trap sightings or locations

______________________________________________________

Portions of this post were excerpted from the book, Exposing the Big Game: Living Targets of a Dying Sport    

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2012. All Rights Reserved

A Natural Reaction

Posted on by
11

Like the Grinch, I hate noise.  

My detestation for din is rooted in an awareness of what it usually portends.

There are a lot of loud sounds in the natural world: a pond full of enthusiastic frogs, an energetic waterfall or the crashing of ocean breakers. But these are still relatively pleasing to the ear. Noise is a word that, to my mind, usually describes something man-made: an un-muffled car or motorcycle revving its engine, a loaded logging truck using compression to slow down for a corner, a monotonous jackhammer, Ted Nugent’s screeching voice or, of course, gunfire. I suppose there are a few natural sounds that could rival man’s machinery—a major earthquake or perhaps a volcano going off. But, like the sources of anthropogenic racket, these are the upshot of highly destructive processes.

Being the adaptable, accomplished noisemakers they are, sometimes people can be conditioned to thinking they actually enjoy things that should be unsettling to their senses—a burst of firecrackers or a Ted Nugent concert. But most animals are naturally stressed or panicked by the nerve-racking report of a high-powered rifle or a bombardment of blasts. It’s not just that they have keener senses; they instinctively know that such noise spells danger.

A lot of dogs experience extreme anxiety from fireworks or the blare of gunfire, often because they have an intimate or innate understanding of their destructive capabilities. We adopted an older dog from a shelter in Montana whose mortal fear of firearms must have been the result of someone using her as a target in her earlier life. Keiko would tremble every time she heard a gunshot; she’d seek shelter and would be inconsolable until the shooters had called a cease fire.

One winter morning during duck hunting season, a crazed, relentless volley of shots was too much for her. She ran off, and though we looked for her everywhere for weeks, we never saw her again.

Image