KITIMAT -- A dog in Northern B.C. has been severely injured after getting caught in three leg-hold traps.
Alexis Toews was out on a recreational trail with her tree dogs in Kitimat, when her dog Vera ran down into the surrounding bushes and let out a loud cry.
Toews ran down to discover the dog in a leg-hold trap, and being familiar with trapping practices, went back to her car to grab tools to free Vera.
When she came back, another one of Vera’s paws was caught in a separate leg trap and a third trap had managed to clamp itself onto the initial mechanism.
The RCMP and local fire department were called, who used special equipment to free the dog.
Vera was severly injured and is currently recovering, with pictures taken prior to being released from the trap showing a bloodied paw.
The news comes a week after Pearl, a livestock guardian dog, had to have its leg amputated after being caught in a leg-trap for three days two hours from Fort St. John.
The Fur-Bearers, a charitable organization committed to the end of the commercial fur trade, conservation, advocacy, and education on wildlife across the province is calling for reforms.
They wrote a letter to Premier David Eby, providing documents from the Ministry of Forests that show there were 74 similar incidents involving family pets from 2015 to 2021, an average of 10 per year.
“There is no way to know if a casual walk with your family’s best friend will end in a horrifying tragedy – despite clear, simple solutions that could prevent it. It’s time for the government to listen and protect families from the dangers of commercial and recreational trapping,” said Lesley Fox, Executive Director for The Fur-Bearers.
Fox says it’s time to modernize the regulations, mandating that trappers put up signs when traps are set up in an area– calling it a ‘common sense’ solution that is not an activist agenda but an issue of public safety.
