Pup killed by conibear trap....

[AlwysFshn]

Recon - I would delete the post about destroying a legally set trap if I were you. Not cool to brag about breaking the law in my humble opinion. I feel somewhat obligated to contact TIP when someone is so blatant about breaking hunting, trapping, or fishing laws.

PS - Not trying to be rude but this kind of falls under the "weeding out" of unlawful hunters, trappers, etc,.

[rmb]

after lurking and watching this post i wanted to chime in with a couple of thoughts. i personally don't see why trappers are not willing to mark their traps with something visual, so that other sportsmen would have better odds at not coming in contact with it. yes there is a greater risk of it being stolen but i'm sorry a 50 to couple hundred dollar trap is nothing compared to the few thousand dollars not counting the hundreds of hours put into a dog. yes scumbags may steel them but they should be reported and prosecuted same as any other law breaker. saying you don't want to mark them because something could happen to your trap is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. similar defense to if you don't want your dog hurt don't come onto public land. in my opinion you are placing the value of one over the other. if a trap is marked and a dog gets into it hunters fault, if a trap is not marked and a dog gets into it trappers fault. both sides are trying to protect there property. so hunters watch your dogs and don't touch marked traps and report anybody messing with them. on the flip side trapper put up at least a sign in the parking lot of the management area letting guys know you have traps out there and at least the general area they are in. shoot if the are water sets go to town. in addition if you are even considering setting a trap next to a landowners property in a ditch you will want to talk to them about it. if nothing else remember this as a land owner i am responsible for maintaining/mowing that ditch (at least in nd) and when that gets wound up inside one of my many thousand dollar pieces of equipment while mowing that ditch prior to winter i will be pretty hot over it. not to mention your trap will now be scrap. it shouldn't be so one side against the other.

having grown up on and currently responsible for managing a dedicated 80 acres preserve plus 1/4 owner of another 2,000 acres of prime pheasant land in north dakota. i know the value that trapping can provide. we spend countless hours trapping for just about every varmit possible, you may laugh at us be we have elected to switch to live traps due to the non discriminatory nature of other styles. comparing capture rates between the two styles has seen little variation. granted we are not trapping for coyotes mostly skunk, coon, p-pines. after switching we have also released plenty of animals that were not being targeted. for us coyotes are the old fashioned way out freezing our butts with a rifle.

i think there are some options out there to make it fair for both sides but one thing to keep in mind gentlemen is that hunting, trapping, fishing, any outdoor activity on public land is not a right as we are very apt to say it's a privilege allowed for at the pleasure of the property owners which is everybody. public land policy is dictated by majority rule for the most part. trappers have quite a bit smaller representation numbers wise and therefore are in a tight spot when it comes to just shear numbers. i think that some get really defensive and are apt to say that nothing needs to change but that stance will most likely end up in loss of privileges long term not maintaining or even expanding on what is currently available. not meant to be a threat just pointing out that larger organizations have more pull when it comes to the allocation of state/fed tax dollars and how those properties are managed. i am guessing that groups like pheasants forever have quite a bit more sway than the local trapping organizations and if those members make it a priority to change trapping rules on public land it would be pretty successful within a couple of years. totally different story on private land.

anyhow my two cents, merry christmas to both sides. i am off to the lake to ice fish, another great privilege of this state.

[Recon]

Lets make the record straight, the conibear trap in question is still right where the trapper placed it. The only difference is that I shoved a stick in it to spring the trap because my dog did not want to back out. My 2 cents worth to this particular topic was my experience just hours before seeing this topic about the pup killed. Trappers apparently take any criticism as a personal attack on their sport and themselves! To say that a hunter needs to keep his dog leashed while hunting on public land, is in itself a stupid, one sided statement!! My concern about this set was that a" game bird" was used as bait during an open season for game birds and that still is what ticked me off. PS I'm heading up this afternoon and if that set hasn't been checked ( it will have been 48 hrs) I will call it in. I now know why trapping has a PR problem.

[Flying_Fort]

I don't know that the trappers are taking anything personally here. It seems to me that the folks using words like stupid and inconsiderate are the non trappers here. Everything a non trapper needs to know about trapping laws are in the Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook, everyone gets with a purchase of any hunting or trapping license. It just has to be read.

As far as checking traps a trapper has to check foothold traps or snares that do not drown the animal everyday, example coyote and fox traps. Conibear traps which are intended to kill the animal have to be checked once every three days, as are foothold traps setup to drown the animal.

Tripping a legally set trap is a violation of game laws. If you should call it in please inform the CO that you tripped a legally set trap. The trapper may not have to check it until tomorrow if it was set the day you tripped it.

To non hunters and trappers we all have a PR problem.

[Ray1]

First off is my sympathy for the pup and owner. Other than that you people that are pointing fingers at trappers and are out hunting are being hipocrits. It goes both ways. I dont trap but i thank every trapper that i see out and about. If they are doing it by the book than so be it and leave it alone. I bird hunt a lot and i think that trappers have just as much right as i do. So why dont you people get it. Lets stop all the whinning and name calling and other B.S. and get in to the outdoors without pointing fingers. P.S. messing with trapps that are not yours is illegal and i have no time for people like this.