Reno Gazette Journal February 11, 2007: A steel trap snapped shut, pinching the folds of flesh on the retriever’s face. Owner Carol Grigus heard her pet’s yelps of pain and rushed to his side, horrified.
“It was very frightening,” Grigus said of the Feb. 1 incident just outside Galena Creek Regional Park popular hiking area.
This was one of three known dog trappings in that area that season
Carol Grigus’ outrage led to further organization and growth of TrailSafe Nevada. She is another co-founder. Here is her initial letter to the editor of Reno Gazette Journal:
I’ve been hiking the Galena Park area of trails for 15+ years, (I live across the highway from the Galena park) and have never come across any of these….I was taking a side trail West to the Jones Creek loop trail; stopped there and then turned around and came down…A short hike that I have done hundreds of times before, but lost the trail on the way down and had to ‘bushwack’ my way back down.. that’s when Duke got into trouble..He was with me the whole way, except when he must have smelled some bait….O gosh, I hope the bait wasn’t poisoned!!…….! The Ranger wasn’t sure that this trap was in the park or not..
Before the ranger came, I managed to untie the wire that fastened the trap to the tree there and we were able to walk with the trap on Duke’s neck…Later, the ranger arrived, released the trap and so we walked to my car together…Not 50′ from that trap I spotted another one….(the playing card attached to a wire above the trap) and showed her. However, we didn’t stop to inspect that one…Didn’t see any animal there….both traps were on a ridge of Jones Creek not more than an eighth mile west of Mt. Rose highway just north of the “north” Galena Park entrance…
Please tell me what can be done to avoid this “incompatible” use for such an area….OUTRAGEOUS that we even have to worry ourselves with this possibility in this location!!!!!!!
My children used to play hide and seek in this same area while growing up here…..with adults watching them!!!!!!!!!