FILE PHOTO - A leg hold trap similar to the one that caught a Kelowna cat late last month.
Image Credit: SPCA Montreal
February 06, 2018 - 6:30 PM
KELOWNA – Leg hold traps like the one that caught a downtown Kelowna cat last month could be anywhere.
Jenny Giesbrecht’s daughter found their nine-month-old cat Nova outside their building in the Cawston Road area late last month. One of his front paws was caught in a leg hold trap.
Lesley Fox is the executive director of The Furbearers, an organization opposed to traps. She claims 85 pets have been killed by traps meant for wild animals in B.C. since 2003. That number has not been confirmed by iNFOnews.ca.
“Right now, traps are out there, all through the Interior," Fox says.
Trapping is regulated by the Provincial government through the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources. Regulations specify traps must be at least 200 metres from a home or school and must not have “teeth.”
Signs are not required to warn people, and the traps do not have to be tagged for identification.
“Traps are allowed to be set on crown land, private property and public property,” she says.
This is true to a point, according to Bylaw services manager Blair Stewart.
Traps approved by the government are legal to use on private property, with the owner's permission, and City employees don't put out traps.
When the city has an issue with a nuisance animal, he says they hire a pest management company to do the trapping.
“We have traps for raccoons and squirrels only on (City) properties when it’s an issue,” he says. “We leave it up to the contractor whether or not to put up warning signs."
To trap on Crown land requires a licence from the government.
“There’s a perception (trapping) happens up north, but the bulk is in our back yard," Fox says.
For more about trapping regulations in B.C., go here.
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