Severed Mountain Lion Paw Found in Southern Bitterroot Wolf Trap
Trappers continually proclaim that non-target animals are released unharmed. Once again, we find evidence against this. This tragic story is from 2015 when a trap was found with a severed mountain lion paw. “He told me the trees were all tore to hell,” Ruark said. “The drag on the trap was hung up on a tree and there were claw marks on the trees where the lion had stood up on its back legs and tried to climb.”
This story directly contradicts all the arguments used by trappers when they claim that trapping is humane and ethical. There is absolutely nothing humane about something that causes animals to rip their own paws off in order to escape to live. Vote yes on I-177 if you live in Montana.
A mountain lion paw found torn off in wolf trap has a former houndsman from Darby asking for change in the way the state manages the predator.
A little over two weeks ago, a friend of Cal Ruark’s dropped off the trap with the severed lion paw in it.
Ruark – a former president of the Bitterroot Houndsmen Association, now a mountain lion advocate – said his friend was antler hunting in the Reimel Creek area, east of the Sula Ranger District, when he made the gruesome find.
The man told Ruark there were deep claw marks in a nearby tree near the location of the trap.
“He told me the trees were all tore to hell,” Ruark said. “The drag on the trap was hung up on a tree and there were claw marks on the trees where the lion had stood up on its back legs and tried to climb.”
Ruark is sure the mountain lion didn’t survive.
Full article: Severed Mountain Lion Paw Found in Southern Bitterroot Wolf Trap