Traps are set mainly for dingoes/wild dogs and foxes. The traps inflict excruciating pain on these target animals, as well as many non-target animals, including kangaroos, wombats, possums, birds and lizards.
In Australia the cruel steel-jaw trap is banned in the ACT and NSW, although it is still widely used in other states. It is also banned in 68 countries around the world, and in some states of America.
Steel-jaw traps don't kill - they snap shut on the leg or other body part when the victims stand on them. Unless trappers very regularly check their traps and kill trapped animals, the victims will die slowly of dehydration, starvation or infection. In one study, 10% of dingoes died in the trap of exposure, exhaustion and shock (1).
In Victoria and New South Wales, professional trappers had trap lines 25-75 kilometres long, with up to 50 traps per line (2). Daily checking of the traps was not possible with a long line, or in rugged country where checking had to be done on horseback. Farmers also set traps, and may or may not check them regularly. What this means is that any animal caught in a trap not only suffers pain and fear for a long time, but also hunger, thirst, and possibly heat exhaustion.
Steel-jaw traps inflict terrible injuries - imagine slamming a car door or your fingers. A study of trapped wolves in Alaska found that 41% had major injuries: large cuts, visible tissue damage, broken bones, severed tendons. In addition, 46% of the wolves had injuries to the mouth and teeth from trying to bite their way out of the trap (3).
Because steel-jaw traps are so cruel, researchers have tried to develop what they call a "humane" trap by attaching a rubber lining to the steel jaws.
However, in a study of trapped coyotes in America, all legs had swelling and bruising, regardless of whether they were caught in steel-jaw or padded traps (4). Some types of injury, however, were less common in padded traps.
|
|
Steel-jaw trap
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Padded trap
|
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Ligament injuries
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95%
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5%-30%
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|
Broken bones
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91%
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15%-25%
|
|
Lacerations more than 2cm
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29%
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20%-24%
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Foxes caught in steel-jaw traps had even worse injuries, as described by the researchers (4):
"
The type of damage encountered in the unpadded 3NR trap was most often (67%) complete or nearly complete amputation (i.e. lower leg held on by small piece of tendon or skin only and scored as amputation.
"
Legs of dingoes caught in
padded
traps had the following injuries (5):
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18%
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undamaged
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34%
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slight swelling
|
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18%
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moderate swelling
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9%
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severe swelling
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20%
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additional injuries, including lacerations, bruising, broken teeth, mouth bleeding, self-inflicted injuries, tendon damage, broken bones
|
Bleeding to the mouth and self-inflicted injuries occur because carnivores bite the trap and their own leg when they suffer the pain and fear of being trapped. In some cases, animals have chewed off their own leg to escape.
In a further study, foxes caught in padded traps had the following injuries (6):
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58.0%
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slight swelling, no lacerations or broken bones
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21.0%
|
moderation swelling, lacerations less than 2.5cm, no broken bones
|
|
10.5%
|
lacerations more than 2.5cm, visible tissue damage, 1 broken bone
|
|
10.5%
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deep lacerations, severed tendons, broken/dislocated bones
|
While padded traps inflict less severe injuries than the cruel steel-jaw traps, they cannot be called humane. They still inflict pain and the terror of being trapped, as well as dehydration/starvation if not checked regularly.
Wrapping strychnine soaked rags around traps to kill animals is also not humane. The poison enters the victim's system either through the leg wound caused by the trap, or when the victim chews the trap in trying to escape. Strychnine causes violent convulsions and painful muscle contractions before the animal dies. As an RSPCA (UK) official has written (7):
"
The obvious severe pain and distress caused by this poison which leaves animals fully conscious while their limbs and body jerk with uncontrollable tonic extensor spasms are more unpleasant to watch.
"
The Feral Animal Search Conference in Canberra in 1991 recommended that the sale and use of strychnine be banned.
Traps are indiscriminate - they catch any animal unlucky enough to step on them. In one study in Victoria and New South Wales, for 146 dingoes trapped there were 513 non-target animals caught (2). Of these, 213 were introduced animals, mainly foxes, cats and rabbits. A further 58 were native birds, in addition to 213 wombats, possums and swamp wallabies. The larger traps in this study caught 1.9 individuals of protected native wildlife for every dingo, while the smaller traps caught 0.3 for every dingo.
Many of these animal are severely injured and have to be destroyed - even padded traps cause injuries. In a study in Queensland, 82% of the black striped wallabies, the most common non-target species caught in padded traps, could not be released because they had broken bones from the trap or dislocated joints from their own frantic struggling (5).
Traps are set for dingoes because they kill livestock. However, several studies in different states have shown that kangaroos and wallabies are their preferred prey (2,8-11). Of the stomachs of dingoes trapped in Victoria and New South Wales for example, only 1 in 30 contained sheep remains and only 1 in 60 cattle remains (2).
In the arid inland, dingoes ate small animals such as rabbits, rodents, lizards and even grasshoppers - livestock made up only 2% of their diet, 4% during droughts when there was less prey and cattle were weaker (12). The researchers concluded that dingoes in this area had little impact on productivity and cattle graziers should ignore them.
Dingoes are more of a problem for sheep than for cattle, hence the "dog fence" from Queensland to South Australia intended to keep dingoes out of the sheep grazing areas to the south. Studies of diet show that dingoes don't often eat sheep, although they may and chase and kill them without eating the carcase. However, the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare in its report on sheep husbandry stated (13): "
Losses due to predation are thought to be generally small, however, individual flocks in susceptible environments such as urban fringes may experience heavy losses
". Such losses are due to irresponsible dog owners, not dingoes. As to young animals, 2-5% of deaths of healthy lambs are due to predation of all kinds, including dingoes (14).
Some researchers claim that dingoes are a problem not only because they kill sheep, but mainly because they harass them, separating mothers from their lambs, chasing them through fences, and keeping them away from good grazing areas (15). However, another researcher has pointed out that such claims are not supported by research (8):
"...
dingo predation on domestic stock is quite low. However, it is alleged, with little factual data to support the claim, that the major cause of economic losses by dingoes is not from predation but from harassment of the stock. This may subsequently cause "mismothering" of lambs and calves, weight loss in adults, and reduction in wool growth in sheep. Whether these losses occur and are of economic significance when compared to the already high losses from other natural causes in rangeland areas, could only be determined from detailed study of sheep and cattle herds and of individual dingo behaviour
".
One study of sheep losses in eastern New South Wales confirmed that the percentage of sheep killed by dingoes is quite low. For example, in the Northern Tablelands region there were 1755 sheep deaths per year due to dingo attacks out of a population of nearly 8 million sheep. In the South-Eastern region there were 2244 sheep deaths per year due to dingo attacks, out of a population of over 7 million (16).
A more humane alternative to trapping is to electrify fences in sensitive areas. For example, in South Australia strands of electrified wire have been placed alongside the netting dog fence. Not only is it successfully keeping dingoes on the right side of the fence, it is also preventing damage to the fence by wombats and kangaroos which then allows dingoes to get through (17). In Victoria a grazier has incorporated electrified wire within his existing fences and almost eliminated kangaroo and dingo/dog intrusions into his paddocks (18).
I would like to see
References
for this document on trapping.
I would like to go to other documents on feral animals:
Feral animals in Australia: introduction
Poisons
Introduced diseases
Mustering for slaughter and export
Other methods (shooting, warren ripping, dogging)
Alternatives to killing
