|
SHIPSHEWANA — Fifteen years of trapping animals has taught Todd Lang that trapping is an effective and humane way of catching animals.
Not everyone shares the Indiana Conservation Officer’s opinion though.
“There are a lot of misconceptions with the use of traps and one of the biggest ones is that they break an animal’s leg, they are evil and do harm,” said Lang. “If people take the time to actually learn about them, they will learn that is not the case at all.”
Awareness was just one thing Lang taught during an Indiana trapper education course Tuesday and Wednesday at the Wolfe Community Building in Shipshewana. The approximately 20 people that attended also learned about different types of traps, their uses and the need for each of them. The free, 10-hour course has been offered in Shipshewana for the past six years.
Lang dispelled another myth that traps use teeth or spikes that cut into an animal’s leg.
“Those have been outlawed in Indiana for a long time,” he said.
Older traps were designed to grab an animal’s leg, but modern foot-hold traps catch an animal on the foot.
“Studies have shown that getting them by the foot will hold them better. If it gets them by the pad, it won’t hurt them either,” he said. “This is important because if you get an accidental catch - like a dog or cat - you can free it from a trap unharmed.”
There are many reasons why people trap, including the removal of nuisance animals.
Jeff Gillenwater, of Kendallville, began trapping about 15 years ago in an attempt to get rid of muskrats in his yard. He came to learn more about trapping canines.
“I learned a lot about different places to put sets and different reasons why you want to move them one place or another,” he said. “I’d recommend the class to anyone.”
Trapping is also used to control overpopulation.
“If you aren’t doing it by trapping or hunting, then nature is going to do it and that is usually by disease,” Lang said. “Most of those diseases, it usually takes them two weeks to die, sometimes more. If you are hunting and trapping, you are getting that animal and dispatching it in a more humane way.”
Other people, like 17-year-old Lynn Bontrager, of Shipshewana, trap for sport.
“It is a lot of fun. I mostly like being out in the woods and around animals,” he said.
Like fishing or hunting, there are laws that regulate trapping. People who wish to trap off their property need to get a license and follow guidelines established by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
For more information on trapping visit in.gov/dnr/
|
