From the Mason Valley News, Friday January 29, 1999
Government trapper rescues injured dog and her pups By Kay Jenney A government trapper saved the life of a dog and her seven puppies after the mother dog had chewed off her foot to get out of a trap near Bishop, CA. Wildlife Service Specialist Frank Homan was on the job near the Fish Lake area between Bishop and Tonopah when he discovered the injured animal. He spent three days winning her trust, feeding and giving her water. “l came back home to Yerington and just got to feeling sorry for her, so I went back and got her,’ said Homan. The crippled dog was starving and a half-mile from water, Homan said. But even though she was in such a bad condition, she was still nursing and caring for her seven puppies, he said. “This was in November when it was really cold,” Homan added. Shelly Dillwith, owner of Mrs. Pickles’ Home Pet Care Service, took the dogs in almost a month ago and has been caring for the mother and pups since then. The adult dog is a mix of Aussie and McNab. The pups also are mixed with Border Collie. Dillwith suggested the injured dog was a cow dog, possibly lost by cattle herders passing through the area. And she said the-real heroes of this story are Homan and veterinarian Lisa Infantino. “It’s Homan’s job to keep the ecosystem in check by trapping coyotes, but he has a heart”, Dillwith said. “He drove many hours on a Sunday, hauling a horse trailer, to bring the canine family back to Yerington. Then, Infantino opened her clinic and treated the injured mother dog, on Sunday. without charge,” said Dillwith. The dog has been named ,”Amazing Grace” by Dillwith. The courage of this dog to survive was just amazing, Dillwith said enthusiastically. Infantino provided a timeline of the dog’s suffering to Dillwith from examining her injuries and condition. Apparently, she was first caught in the trap; chewed her foot off; gave birth; then suffered hunger, thirst and medical complications. The dog was crippled and stranded with her litter. Homan said the area is the most desolate country you can find. Dillwith said Amazing Grace also suffered from internal problems; and Infantino clarified the dog’s internal complications as a severe uterine infection, probably resulting from her state of malnutrition. Moreover, her foot injury would best be described as missing fingers up to the knuckle, with the bone of one index exposed. “She is such a brave dog to have taken care of her puppies so well. The puppies looked so good and beautiful, ” said Infantino. “She was only 10 months old, probably impregnated during her first heat. She was just a baby herself while delivering and mothering these pups. People don’t think about what they are doing (the consequences for the animals) when they don’t spay or neuter their animals,” said Dillwith. Infantino performed additional surgery on the dog’s foot and performed a complete ovarian hysterectomy to spay her and treat her complications. Dillwith said the dog understands when humans are helping her and is very cooperative when the bandages need changing. The dog is healing well.and may be adopted by “a very special person,” said Dillwith. Two of the puppies have been adopted, and the other five are ready for new homes. [How ironic that the government trapper goes to great lengths to save a dog and pups, while earning a living killing coyotes. Some canids are more equal than others.]
I worked in a veterinary office for 17 years. We saw plenty of trap injuries.[Veterinarians are reluctant to report such cases, so the numbers are all but impossible to obtain. Because trappers are considered “sportsmen”, and because they are clients, veterinarians do not want to alienate them. Nevertheless, TrailSafe heard statements like the one here.]
Trapper Jane had two toes amputated after trap injury.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 1 p.m. SB 213 testimony before the Nevada Assembly Natural Resources Agriculture and Mining Committee
Thank you for hearing this testimony today.
On Saturday, December 29th, this past winter, our neighbor’s dog Doc was caught in a coil-spring leg-hold trap on our property. There were several inches of snow on the ground during that period and the night-time temperatures were below freezing. It took Doc’s owner, who is an avid outdoorsman, 8 hours to find Doc, finally locating him after dark. Our property, northwest of Reno, has several ravines, rocky cliffs and is covered with dense sagebrush and juniper, making it hard to find a dog that is not moving. Doc had some cuts and bruises from the trap, but fortunately, he had no broken bones. Doc was lucky he was found by his owner, because this beautiful hunting dog may have suffered a terrible death before the trapper bothered to check on this trap 10 days after Doc was caught.
A warden with the Department of Wildlife conducted a thorough investigation of the situation the last two weeks of January. He found our property well marked with “Private Property, No Trespassing” signs, and on three different occasions he hiked our property for several hours and found 6 more traps. He set up a motion-activated camera to catch the trapper “in the act” of checking his traps, but, as it turns out, the trapper never visited any of the additional six traps discovered by the warden.
During this time, we stopped walking and hiking on our property, we kept our dogs locked up in a small yard, and asked our neighbors to stay away from our property until this trapping incident was resolved.
The warden finally found the trapper, thanks to one small lead—someone on January 8th, riding a horse, left a deep, straight trail in the snow between a house southwest of us and Doc’s trap site. On January 30th, a month after Doc was trapped, and after what seemed like an entire winter of feeling like prisoners in our own home, the warden informed us that the fellow at this address admitted to setting the seven traps. He was a first-time trapper this winter and had gotten a trapping license. He admitted to not “visiting” the traps that the warden discovered, because he said he was going to watch them by using a spotting scope. The warden said the traps couldn’t be seen with a scope from this man’s house 1 ½ miles away with the terrain what it is. That’s why the law requires a physical visit. As to why he set his traps on private property the trapper told the warden he didn’t know it was private property–he hadn’t seen any signs. Sadly for the trapper, the warden had my photographs from January 8th, of this man’s horse tracks in the snow passing right next to one of 18 “Private Property/No Trespassing” signs that line the road leading to our house. This fellow admitted to not knowing trapping regulations, saying “he could not find the information.” We were not surprised when the warden told us “there was no education or course of understanding a trapper must take prior to getting a license.” In the end, the warden sited the trapper for baiting violations and visitation violations, and warned him about trapping on private property, using “game” as bait, and “failure to remove a mammal” (the warden could not discuss the last two warnings with us, and frankly, we didn’t really want to know at this point).
This warden was fantastic to work with and worked hard to resolve this case. Had this trapper’s traps been registered, the warden admitted, the case would have been resolved quickly. This would have saved money and time and perhaps would have preserved some sense of the safety and security we have felt on this beautiful piece of property for a quarter-of-a-century. As it is, we will never feel safe there again, and we plan to take the warden’s advice and learn how to free ourselves and our animals from leg-hold traps and snares.
Obviously, we believe all traps should be registered, and we believe trappers should be educated in trapping laws, and we also believe that the “humane treatment of all animals” should be the primary concern of all wildlife agencies. If this bill passes, I hope the Board of Wildlife Commissioners reduces the cruel and absurdly-long trap visitation requirement of 96 hours, to 24 hours, at least in congested areas, but preferably in the entire state.
Thank You
[Despite attempts at legislation, Nevada still has not revised its 96-hour visitation law which remains the longest statutory visitation period in the USA. Some states have no visitation laws, but most require 24 hours]
In Cold Springs, Sand Piper Drive, there were several 3-legged cats noted in the neighborhood. There is one back yard that is semi-fenced. Evidently this neighbor considered cats a nuisance, so set traps for them. Now the neighborhood is over-run with mice and all the feral cats are gone. There had been about 10 cats. This process happened over a 4-year period.
I was hiking with a woman and a German Shepherd. The Shepherd stepped into a trap in the river. It took two people to get the dog out of the trap. His front leg was broken halfway up. A “guy” came by and asked for his trap back. The hikers refused and took it with them to the police. The dog owner had to pay the entire vet bill.
Doesn’t look like this “guy” offered to pay damages!Since passage of SB364, law requires trapper ID or NDOW registration number on all traps set on public land. And the public has the right to disturb a trap that poses obvious risk.
