Originally Posted by
Fenelon
Boss:
I'm not sure where your home is, but I'm assuming it's north of me, and you're trapping crown land. A totally different situation if you're working remote areas, away off the beaten trail of other users who are recreating on that same piece of land you're using. Regardless of what "rights" us trappers think we have under the regulations, 'we're now living in a different world where we are under constant scrutiny. Any bad PR is devastating to us as a group. Right now a petition with more than 45,000 signatures has been sent to the Minister, asking for regulation changes. Baited conibear (body gripper) sets are causing the problems, as I, as a trapper with over 30 years of experience, must agree that there is no reason to put these on the ground when there is even a remote chance that you're going to get a non-target catch. Not sure why you'd want to anyways, as you're only ensuring that your catch will probably get mouse-chewed, predated, and abdominal belly-tainted from lying on the ground. It takes a few minutes more to make an elevated set, with your cubby off the ground and out of reach for people's dogs.
Re: coyotes and fox - no wolves in the area I trap. Regs don't allow land snaring in the majority of the area I trap, so it's either dirt holes or foot snares. Tough for me to do much, as I'd need dedicated time off work to humanely run a line. I do some snaring off bait piles, but I make sure it's completely away from any areas that see general public use.
I've never seen any provincial law that says you've got to keep your pet on a leash. The FWCA refers to dogs "at large", and I'm sure this is in reference to a free-running, unattended dog. It's also specific in relation to being applicable to presence of the dog during big game seasons. We (us trappers and me included), as a group, need to understand, and accept, the fact that there are lots of people entitled to recreate on that same piece of land we are working. I think the cottager who's up from the city on the weekend should be able to take their dog for a walk down the forestry access road, and not have to worry about their attended dog getting killed in a poorly-set trap that's 20yds off the trail. The guy with a small game licence should be able to run his beagle on hare on that same road, without having to worry about his hound find a baited 220 cubby on the ground. Diligence is up to the trapper in my opinion. How hard is it to get that set up onto a running pole? You need to make every set based on the assumption that someone's dog will find that set. If you simply do that, then there's no problems. IMO, we better start adopting this attitude, or our industry will be gone from southern and central Ontario, in under 10 years from now.
