Leg hold traps do not discriminate

To the editor: In response to the issues raised in Ms. Muse’s letter about the recent unintentional leg hold trapping of two dogs, I say pet owners BE-AWARE! Leg hold traps are legal but the traps themselves do not discriminate. Their purpose is to catch an animal, any animal, by snapping shut on the leg, face, neck or any body part. Last June, I responded to an emergency call at 6 a.m. for a cat caught by its neck in a squeeze trap on the South Main Street in Florida. When I arrived, the cat, unable to lift its head, was flailing and had bloodied its paws in its attempts to save itself. This horrific trap was removed at the Orange County Animal Emergency Clinic after sedating the cat. The trauma to the cat’s neck was so severe, he required several months of recuperation. The Humane Society incurred the emergency vet bill of $363 for this unclaimed stray. I am happy to report that “Trapper” has fully recovered, but is still waiting to be adopted. The Chocolate Lab who fell victim to a leg hold trap earlier this month most likely spent the long night suffering with his paw caught. Fortunately, it appears his paw was swollen with no visible lacerations and he was reunited with his owners. Leg hold traps, legal if they are numbered and checked every 24 hours, and illegal if otherwise, are inhumane, causing excruciating pain, hours of suffering and for some, even death, to every animal who ends up in its jaws. In a recent interview article in AWI Quarterly, a former trapper talks about the unwritten word among trappers is to kill trapped cats to avoid bad publicity. Until the law is changed to make their use illegal, keep your dogs on a leash (per local ordinance anyway), be extremely careful in wooded areas, keep your beloved cats indoors, stop buying and wearing fur, call or write our state representatives to change state law and let’s ask our town officials to ban the use of these traps in our community for our children and our pets’ sakes. Suzyn Barron President, Warwick Valley Humane Society