This week, I was entangled in an unmarked trap on public land up a small ravine across from the start of Heart Mountain Canal below Rattlesnake Mountain. The foothold trap crushed my front paw, and I began to wail uncontrollably. When my owner arrived, I bit her several times as she tried to free me. She was unable to remove the trap. So she carried me on her back down the ravine to the road, where a family member met us to assist in removing the trap from my paw.

This particular trap was not permanently marked or tagged with the name and address of the owner or the identification number assigned to the owner by the department, as is required by Wyoming law. This offense is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail. After my paw was freed, my owner found your ID number on only one of the dozens of other leghold and snares traps we passed as she carried me out to the canal road, including one just off the canal.

Trapper 04-017, protected by the obscurity of an ID number and without consequence for my injury/emotional damage, will you please set your traps further from well-used human trails, pathways, and dirt roads?

Anonymous 2-year-old Pet

---

If you feel outraged, please get in touch with these wildlife management decision-makers. Let them know that it is legal to kill a pet, or any other non-target animal if the trap is legal. The trap must then be returned to the owner to kill again. No one is held accountable for the injury or death of the pet. If the trap is illegal, there may be a warning or citation, but penalties are lax.

Please request that Wyoming, rated as one of the worst states for archaic trapping regulations, step up to the responsibility of trapping reform. This beloved pet did not deserve to get trapped and brutally killed like this or any other non-target animal. The countless numbers of wildlife that are killed in this manner every year is unimaginable since reporting is primarily voluntary.