SURREY (NEWS1130) - A group is urging Surrey city council to ban certain types of animal traps after a young raccoon that got its leg caught in an illegal trap had to be euthanized.
Someone found the raccoon last week in Surrey and brought it to Angela Fontana at the
Critter Care Wildlife Society.
"I was almost in tears, and I've seen a lot of badly injured animals," Fontana tells News1130.
She says it took a long time to get the trap off.
"It had pretty much crushed and almost severed its paw," she says. "There was infection present all the way up to the elbow. It had to be euthanized because he would have no use of a foot and he couldn't survive in the wild that way."
The
Association for the Protection of Fur Bearing Animals (Fur-Bearer Defenders) says while most leg-hold traps are legal, this trap was illegal because it had teeth. They also say regardless of whether traps have teeth or not, leg-hold traps are an
outdated and inhumane method of catching animals in the wild - let alone where people and pets are.
Specific models can be used in all provinces depending on a variety of factors, such as what kind of animal is being targeted and where the trap is being set.
Earlier this month the town of Gibsons
set a precedent in the province by banning leg-hold, Conibear and snare traps. The move was a response to community outcry after a dog became caught in a leg-hold trap meant for wolves in the spring.
A
$2,500 reward is being offered for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for setting the illegal trap.