Leghold Traps

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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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The barbaric and bone-crushing steel-jaw leghold trap, like the one shown below, is the most common type of trap hidden all over the Gila National Forest and on other public lands in New Mexico.

Photo by W. Szymanski

Once one of these powerful devices slams shut on the leg of a dog, cat or other animal, that unlucky creature will use every last ounce of its strength trying to pull itself free from it. And in that frantic struggle, animals frequently break their teeth, tear the tendons, muscles and ligaments of their legs and feet, break their leg and foot bones, and dislocate their shoulders or hips. Many even chew their foot off to escape.

And as trappers in New Mexico are on the honor system to check their traps only once every 24-hours, that agonizing struggle can last a long, long time -- during which, they are also easy prey to other animals.

At least three Mexican gray wolves, one of the most endangered mammals in North American, had to have limbs amputated as a direct result of injuries suffered from being caught in steel-jaw leghold traps similar to the one above. One of those wolves is still alive, crippled and hobbling around the nearby Gila National Forest trying to survive and feed his family on one less leg than he was born with. His mate, too, is crippled, having lost a foot to traps.

If that's not sad enough, dogs, who are the most frequent "incidentally" caught animal, have also had their limbs amputated and even lost their lives because of injuries from barbaric traps. (See, for example, these no-gore short video stories of Otis and Rosie, two dogs who were caught in leghold traps.)

Marking the specific location or even the general area where these traps are set on public lands isn't a requirement for trappers in New Mexico -- even though doing so would provide a warning to the public to be cautious of where they and their dogs walk.

Please call the Governor of New Mexico (505-476-2200) and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (505-476-8000) and politely tell them you do not want cruel traps on public lands in New Mexico. Also, you can contact the New Mexico Game Commissioners here.