THUNDER BAY -- A petition asking for the province to publish maps showing active trap lines has the attention of an area trapper’s organization.
“If a trap is set in the proper manner and it is marked, I don’t believe there is too much of an issue,” said Karl Lindstrom, past president of the Northwest Fur Trappers Association, in response to the online petition that is now 43,000 signatures strong and growing. “But the biggest problem we have is when people let their pets run at large.”
The petition asks Minister of Natural Resources Bill Mauro to launch a public awareness campaign on the dangers of active traps to pets and people, including publishing maps online of where registered trap lines are located, and to set out a minimum distance that traps must be set from public trails.
The petition and its requests follows an incident in the Peterborough area where a Labrador retriever died after being caught in a baited kill trap within 20 feet of a snowmobile trail.
Throughout the province it is illegal to let your dog run off-leash on Crown land, a point Lindstrom stressed after learning of the petition.
Lindstrom added that trappers use kill-type traps and restraining traps and they check them every 24 hours.
Most trappers also mark their traps and pick the locations responsibly.
“A trapper himself has to respect the public,” he said. “Before I set any traps … I will let people know and put up signs myself. That’s one trapper. Everyone has to do due diligence.”
The number of people signing the petition has Mauro’s attention and the MPP (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan) said he’s received numerous emails about the issue.
“It’s obviously an issue that touches a chord with a lot of people,” he said, adding he’s heard not just from people in Ontario, but from across the country.
“We’re hearing from a lot of folks on this and we’re going to see what it is we can do to limit this from potentially occurring again,” said Mauro.
The minister said he’s written to the family who lost their pet and understands this is a legitimate issue.
However, there are many unanswered questions at this point.
“We know an animal was killed in a trap. We don’t know how the trap got there. We don’t know who is responsible for it. We don’t know if it was on a trap line,” he said.
The issue is serious and Mauro said there is also the possibility of danger not only to animals but to young children as well.
“We need to be practical in any solution or potential solutions we bring forward,” said Mauro.
“It is absolutely something we should try to do what we can to prevent this from happening again.”
