Search Trapping Incidents Database

A couple were hiking with a friend’s husky in Chugach National Forest near Mile 86 of the Seward Highway. They parked at the large national forest sign south of Girdwood. The dog ran ahead and was caught in a leghold trap. They managed to release the dog, whose leg was injured but not broken. The dog broke several teeth biting at the trap.

A woman’s retriever was caught in a 330 Conibear about 20-30 yards off the Penguin Creek Trail in Chugach State Park. The trap was baited with salmon filets. After about 20 minutes, the woman and her friends figured out the spring mechanism and released the dog, which was uninjured.

A woman’s chocolate Lab/pit bull mix was caught in a 330 Conibear during a walk on the Powerline Trail, about a quarter mile from the Upper Indian Creek trail head in Chugach State Park. The trap was baited with a large chunk of meat and set about 10 feet off the trail. The dog was crushed to death.

A woman walking her dog along the railroad tracks south of Powder Ridge Subdivision and the Beach Lake ski trails had her dog caught in a leghold trap while it investigated a pile of railroad ties. The dog was injured but not killed.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game received an anonymous complaint of two dogs caught in traps on trails near Mile 5 and Mile 9 of the Knik River Road. Both dogs were injured, but the extent and the types of traps are not known.

A man took his dogs for a walk in the garden of his local synagogue. Indy ran off to sniff around the edge of the small pond just north of the gazebo. “That’s when I heard a noise I’ll never forget,” said Indy’s guardian. “I don’t even know how to describe it — something between a snap and a scream and a grunting sound. Indy was only maybe 20 feet away from me. I ran to him and looked down to see this thing like four pieces of U-shaped metal closed around his head and neck and into his mouth.” The trap was placed in a 5-gallon plastic bucket baited with an open can of tuna fish, on private property intended for family use. Indy’s guardian called 911, and for the next half-hour, he fought against the heavy metal springs while Indy slowly suffocated in his arms. “He was trying to stay calm, and I was trying to keep the trap open, waiting for the police to arrive,” he said. “I looked into that dog’s eyes for however long it was and watched him stare back at me. About five minutes before the police came, he died.” The trap was illegally set, the trap’s owner has been identified, and faces arraignment on pending charges.

A man found his dog, Bulger, dead in a leghold trap, killed by a shotgun. His neighbor, who had set the traps for coyotes, found Bulger and another dog (see 02/07/08 incident below) and, thinking they were strays, shot them. The neighbor was charged with two counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.

A woman walking along a road in the woods with her dog was frightened when a small Conibear trap snapped shut on her dog’s foot. After pulling the trap loose she became angry. The trap had no owner’s tag, so she followed the ATV tracks to a neighbor’s house and confronted the trapper. Except for lacking an identification tag, the trap, set for rabbits, was legal.

A pet dog was caught in a cable restraint left for wildlife on a trail. Dog was taken to a vet and treated for hypothermia and dehydration, but later died.

Kona’s caregiver writes, “Leaving the truck just off China Hat Road, we walked up a side road along a low ridge. Not more than 10 minutes from the truck, I heard my Airedale vocalize, followed by several coyote howls. I whistled to bring the dog back to me, but she didn’t come in like she usually does when coyotes are around. I kept walking and whistling, and in a few minutes circled back to the area I had heard her call from. She was sitting under a small tree with her right front paw caught in a leg hold trap. As I got up to her, I could see the area was trampled, blood-stained and littered with bird feathers.” It took him several minutes to get the trap on Kona’s toes, and three vet visits have so far cost $485. Not only was the trap perfectly legal, but if Kona’s caregiver had damaged the trap in anyway, he would have broken the law. Nor is the trapper liable for vet bills for Kona’s injuries. The incident changed the man’s opinion about leghold traps.