Freeing a dog caught in a trap

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We are Grant County, New Mexico citizens working alongside others in the state to focus public attention on the fact that steel-jaw leghold traps, steel-wire snares and other barbaric body-gripping animal traps are secreted all over the Gila National Forest and on other public lands in the state.

These traps are indiscriminate and unnecessarily cruel to companion animals and endangered species, as well as to their intended victims.

We hope this public attention will lead to banning these traps from public lands.

Report Trap Encounters

The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter is compiling information about trapping incidents. If you have an encounter with a trap on public lands in New Mexico, please report your experience to them at

notraps@kitcarson.net.

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This website contains some copyrighted material whose use has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.

This material is made available in an effort to educate and inform visitors on the issue of trapping on public lands. It also represents a small part of this site's web content and it is not used for commercial purposes.

No Cruel Traps On Public Lands believes, therefore, that this constitutes "fair use" of the material as provided for in section 107 of the United States Copyright Law. To learn more about the Fair Use doctrine in Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, please visit: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

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In the blink of an eye the unthinkable happens ... a powerful steel-jaw leghold trap slams shut on your dog's leg!

How do you open the trap to free your dog?

The following is the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish's instructional video on freeing a dog caught in a steel-jaw leghold trap:

Curiously, this video is not posted on the New Mexico Tourism Department website.

The following illustration of freeing a dog from a coil-spring leghold trap is from the Reno Gazette Journal - www.rgj.com

The following two photos from TrapFree Oregon show the release procedure for a coil-spring leghold trap:

Your weight on the levers will relax the pressure on the trap jaws, loosening them and enabling your dog
to pull its foot free.

Also, check out Terrierman.com, a website on American working terriers, for a well-written article on releasing dogs from traps.

Please call the Governor of New Mexico (at 505-476-2200) and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (at 505-476-8000) and politely tell them you do not want cruel traps on public lands in New Mexico. Also, please contact the New Mexico Game Commissioners at: http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/commission/index.htm

Page last updated 05MAR10 - 11:27 am