Each year approximately 10 million animals are trapped in the wild, so that they can be skinned for fur coats. The primary tools used by fur trappers are the following: leghold trap, the body grip (Conibear) trap, and the wire snare.

Despite that 74 percent of Americans oppose the use of the leghold trap, Congress has not banned its use. The leghold trap has been banned in eighty-eight countries, but only eight U.S. states have passed legislation to prohibit its use. This is despite volumes of documentation proving that leghold traps mutilate wild animals, are non-selective in what they catch, and are a danger to companion animals and children.

The leghold trap is composed of two metal jaws, powered by high strength springs, which slam shut on an animals paw when triggered. The initial impact of the steel jaws causes injury, but the majority of damage is caused as the animal struggles to break free.

Within the first 30 minutes of capture, a trapped animal can tear her flesh, rip tendons, break bones, and even knock out teeth as she bites the trap to escape.

Before Sweden banned leghold traps, their government carried out a trapping campaign against foxes. Of the 645 foxes that were trapped, 514 were considered seriously injured.

The trapped foxes had struggled desperately to get free, and over 200 of them had knocked out teeth. Some of the foxes had knocked out as many as 18 teeth as they bit the trap trying to escape.

Some animals even bite off their own limbs in a desperate attempt to escape. The fact that an animal would sever her own limb demonstrates how horrible the experience of being caught in a leghold trap is.

A study in Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge found that 27.6 percent of mink, 24 percent of raccoon, and 26 percent of trapped fox would actually chew their limbs off in hopes of surviving. In many cases the animals died from blood loss, infection, and inability to hunt with an amputated limb.

This study was carried out over a four year period and involved many trappers with varying degrees of skill. Therefore, these percentages are fairly indicative of what happens with the various species mentioned above.

Another study, conducted in 1980, found that 37 percent of raccoons mutilated themselves when caught in a leghold trap.

In a public relations move, the fur trade began manufacturing padded leghold traps. These pads consisted of nothing more than a rubber strip across the jaws of the trap. The traps still had to close with the same force to hold a fighting mad wild animal.

The trapped animal still had to wait in the trap for as long as 3 days, until the trapper returned. A 1995 study of coyotes trapped in padded leghold traps found that 97 percent experienced severe swelling to their legs, while 26 percent suffered lacerations and fractures.

A different study was conducted in which fifty-five red foxes were caught in padded leghold traps. Twenty-five suffered severe swelling, twenty-three suffered lacerations, seventeen fractured their teeth, and thirteen suffered from severance of tendons, abrasions, or fractures.

Some animals in traps will be found dead from dehydration, blood loss, hypothermia, or other trap inflicted injuries. Predators eat many of the animals that they find helpless in traps.

Trappers kill animals that are still alive by shooting them in the head, stomping on their chests, or by beating their skulls in.

Some leghold traps are actually set in a way as to kill an animal as opposed to restrain it. These are set in the water and are called “drowning sets.” These are mostly reserved for beaver, muskrat, and mink.

Trap researcher Fredrick Gilbert claims that these animals all struggled for two to five minutes, trying desperately to survive.
The average time length required to actually drown the animals was nine minutes and thirty seconds. Some beavers would hold on for as long as twenty minutes before their lungs gave out.

The fur industry argues that these “drowning sets” are humane. This only shows that their definition of humane is quite different than that of the rest of society.

Often the traps will capture an animal other than the one the trapper was targeting. These are often referred to as “trash” animals, and are generally killed and thrown away. Those that are released usually die shortly thereafter from trap inflicted injuries.
These non-target animals frequently include dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, opossums, and endangered species.

Susan Foster of New York was walking her dog when he ran into the bushes and was caught in a body grip trap. In a written statement she testified that her dog was in agony for twenty minutes. The trap was too strong for her to open and she could only struggle to free her dog as he writhed in pain for twenty minutes.

These are not isolated cases.

The other commonly used fur trap is the snare. This is made of cable, and is shaped like a noose. When an animal walks through the noose, she is caught. The more she struggles, the tighter the noose becomes. If the animal is caught around the neck, it will eventually strangle her.

Fur trapping is a barbaric activity, done to supply people with an object of vanity--a fur coat. Clearly this egregious suffering cannot be justified with such a frivolous end product.

The suffering is multiplied when one considers the fact that an average of forty to one hundred animals must be killed to make a single fur coat.

Photo courtesy of the Fur Bearers