"We trappers do cause
pain and suffering to animals
and apologize to no one."
- Dennis "Foothold" Schutz, former Vice President of the Montana Trappers Association
The truth of trapping
There is no mandatory trap check required in Montana (except in the case of wolves or in lynx habitat) - MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks merely recommends that trappers check their traplines every 48 hours.
-- Trapped animals may linger in traps or snares for several days and nights, while exposed to pain and panic (physiological and psychological trauma), extreme temperatures, hypothermia, and other predators. Injuries range from lacerations, dislocated joints and broken bones. Some animals have been found to chew and pull off their limb that is caught in a trap (“wring off”).
-- Death in traps can come through drowning, freezing, predation, dehydration, or starvation before a trapper returns to "dispatch" an animal. Montana requires only that trapped wolves must be dispatched via gun shot. All other trapped animals can be killed however a trapper sees fit - including pelt-saving techniques such as strangulation, clubbing, and crushing/ stomping.
-- Trapped animals may linger in traps or snares for several days and nights, while exposed to pain and panic (physiological and psychological trauma), extreme temperatures, hypothermia, and other predators. Injuries range from lacerations, dislocated joints and broken bones. Some animals have been found to chew and pull off their limb that is caught in a trap (“wring off”).
-- Death in traps can come through drowning, freezing, predation, dehydration, or starvation before a trapper returns to "dispatch" an animal. Montana requires only that trapped wolves must be dispatched via gun shot. All other trapped animals can be killed however a trapper sees fit - including pelt-saving techniques such as strangulation, clubbing, and crushing/ stomping.