Talking to antis about the reality of trapping

Hi, I'm not a trapper, I'm just reading about it. I'm new to hunting and conservation. I have a trapper friend who went into that occupation because she's autistic and being out in the woods serves her better than a mainstream job would. Even if it doesn't pay much these days.

I've also had lots of anti-trapping friends. You've heard about the fierce backlash against the conibear trap. Ironically, at the time it was introduced, it was heralded for being a more humane alternative to the leg-hold traps of the time. Queen Elizabeth II herself met Frank Ralph Conibear to congratulate him.

What can I say to anti-trappers who think all trappers are wildlife-hating sadists?

If their minds are made up then there's just about nothing you can say. Like it or not, trapping has a history of cruelty and when trappers came under the gun in the '60's and 70's for their archaic methods many of them still refused to change. It took the entire rejuvenation of the commercial fur laws coupled with compulsory trapper ed courses just to get their attention and show that the government meant business.
The other problem of course is that it will always be difficult to justify the killing of an animal for the sake of fashion when that same fur can be made synthetically.
It will always be easier to justify hunting and fishing over trapping with the exception of nuisance animal removal. In reality your only recourse is to try to educate them with the concept of population control which leads to the overall health of the species. Use mink and marten for your examples.

Hi Skull&Bones, Sawbill nailed it with his reply but I can also add that trapping also limits property damage/flooding when it comes to dispatching Beavers and pet/swimmer attacks when it comes to using drowning sets to remove Muskrats (seen it with my own eyes!)

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Originally Posted by skulls&bones

Hi, I'm not a trapper, I'm just reading about it. I'm new to hunting and conservation. I have a trapper friend who went into that occupation because she's autistic and being out in the woods serves her better than a mainstream job would. Even if it doesn't pay much these days.

I've also had lots of anti-trapping friends. You've heard about the fierce backlash against the conibear trap. Ironically, at the time it was introduced, it was heralded for being a more humane alternative to the leg-hold traps of the time. Queen Elizabeth II herself met Frank Ralph Conibear to congratulate him.

What can I say to anti-trappers who think all trappers are wildlife-hating sadists?

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What can I say to anti-trappers who think all trappers are wildlife-hating sadists?[/QUOTE]

There is probably not a lot you can say. Their mines are made up and they don’t appreciate having them challenge by anything you might think. The conibear trap was designed to quickly terminate any trapped animal with its mechanism slamming shut and breaking some section of the animals spinal cord, causing the on set of death. In my youth I recall an episode along our line fence where a neighbour had set a conibear trap, possibly to deal with coyotes or stray dogs that might come to bother his sheep. It was presumably a nightly guardian for his flock, since during the day his favour tool was a goose gun loaded with buckshot. That said bro and I were out for hunt and we came across a porcupine, that had attempted to cross into our property through the small opening in the fence guarded by the conibear trap, it had gotten it head and neck through the trap before it had shut down on its upper body. The porcupine was very much alive, so we shot it to put it out of its misery. That said, I have come across something of a humane live trap, I’ve been using it this year to remove a few of the squirrels I found helping themselves to our small vegetable patch in our back yard. It works pretty good. I capture them and live release them after I take them for a long drive out into the rural area that surrounds the city. This is not to say they don’t suffer a bit, any wild animal denied its freedom can work themselves up into quite a state of adjuration, in this case they live to pursue life elsewhere.

You don’t stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

The guy that hosts meat hunter has a good video on this. He is at a book signing and is asked by a vegan about taking an animals life. One of the best answers I have heard. Way better articulated then I have ever come up with.


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