Body Crushing Traps By Carson River

Told in Person March 10, 2015

I met with an officer from NDOW this morning, and showed him where the traps are. They are set legally. He was understanding of my concern for safety.

Here goes on what happened.

On March 7th around 3pm I took my dog to the Carson River just off of Hwy 395 before Stephanie Lane. We took the trail to the left to go where the river is a bit shallow. My dog ran to the water, with me trailing behind. I got to the bank, and saw what looked like a wood stake with something around it. There was some debris piled around it. I wasn’t sure what was there, so I was poking it with a stick, and it snapped. I jumped! It scared me, especially thinking about the fact by dog had been right next to it a couple of times. 
I went back to my car, since I had left my phone there. I called Douglas County Sheriff to ask about traps. They referred me to NDOW, and gave me the number. I called and left a message. I wanted to take a picture of the trap, and the location, so I went back down. I took the picture, and thought I’ll go upstream where there isn’t debris by the edge of the river. We went upstream about 25-30 yards, and all was good. There is a downed tree with some water around it out of the river. My dog heard something there, and was in the water going toward a log, I looked at where he was, and there was anouther trap on the log. I got him out of the water by throwing a stick into the river. I poked at the trap, afraid he would go back where it was. I took a picture of that trap, texted my husband, and left. I was afraid to stay down there, for fear that he would get into a trap that I didn’t see.
This is a place that several people take their dogs, and families. It frightens me to think what would happen if a pet, or a child was to get into one of these traps. The officer from NDOW said conibear traps are quite deadly for the animals that get into them.
I no longer feel that it is safe to take my dog to the one place that we have gone several time a week for the past few years, weather permitting. Traps are not safe anywhere near civilization. I also think that they should be visited every 24-36 hours at a maximum.

-Kathi P.

A useful guide to dealing with these “Conibear” or “Body-Gripping traps.