Nutria
Over the summer a neighborhood in Portland Oregon had an infestation of Nutria a rodent that looks like a small Capybara weighing in between 11 and 20lbs and eating trees and shrubs. Nutria are non-native to Oregon and are a problem as they eat the plant life that prevents landslides and have no native predators. The community decided to call in the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to get rid of the Nutria thinking that they would place cage traps around the community as it is a family and dog friendly community. At first they did place cage traps around the community but then they were not doing the job quickly enough for the Wildlife Services so they came back into the community taking away the live cage traps and replacing them with conibear traps meant to kill. Only according to their own rules they are not supposed to use those traps in areas with other native wildlife or near residential areas with children and pets.
Claiming that the email notification that traps were set out (it is unclear if they made the community aware that they had replaced the humane traps with with killing traps) and notices were posted by the traps stating that they are property of the Wildlife Services and not touch or remove them was enough to warn the community of the danger.
A dog killed by a Conibear Trap
The parents were still allowing their children down to the lake to catch frogs maybe a fish or two and to play in the water with their dogs in tow. No one alerted the community that the area could prove fatal to children and pets. So everyone went about their summer as usual. That is until one day when one of the dogs in the community was found with its head trapped in the conibear trap but even with the help of neighbors the family with who lived only 40 feet from the trap with their children could not save their dog.
The Wildlife Department should be liable in this case. I’m sure if the residents had known the killing power of a conibear trap they’d never have allowed that so close to their children and pets. What a sad story.
I am late to see this posting but thought I would comment. Pet owners who let their pets run free in public are irresponsible. Period. If my dog died in this situation, I would be very sad and very angry at myself because I know I should leash my dog in public. Officials responding to neighborhood complaints are in a no win situation. If they use guns and wound an animal that runs to the porch of the nearest home and dies there would be an outcry. If they use live traps, they will catch all kinds of small critters, but not enough nutria to keep populations in check or eliminate them because nutria aren’t easily tempted into entering a live trap, and the neighborhood will complain that officials haven’t solved the nutria problem. Conibears or leg traps will catch lots of nutria. Conibears are preferable to leg traps precisely because they kill immediately. If nutrias are really so undesirable that they need to be killed, and pet owners still insist on letting their pets run free, they shouldn’t be suprised or angry at officials because the pet owner failed to safeguard the pet and it gets killed.