Trappers, dogs clash on trails

PALMER — Despite years of review, borough animal ordinances amended Jan. 6 have left unresolved what users of local trails see as a major issue: dogs that become entangled in traps set for wild fur-bearing animals.

Proposed amendments to Chapter 24 of borough code had included sections pertaining to dogs and traps. However, those were removed after borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos expressed concerns about potentially infringing on state authority, according to several people familiar with the issue.

On one side, fur trappers worry that what they say are the unethical actions of a minority of trappers who trespass or place traps close to hiking trails will give their pastime a public black eye. Dog owners who say their best friends have lost limbs and lives in snares placed on private property and too close to hiking trails say regulation is necessary to prevent further dog injuries.

Officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game say they aren’t sure how many times and under what circumstances dogs encounter snares. That’s in part because the agencies they report to can range from Alaska Wildlife Troopers to local police to none at all, according to Todd Rinaldi, an Area Wildlife Biologist with Fish and Game.

“In the excitement and anxiousness of the moment, people are putting their pet as the big priority, and not knowing who to turn to to report these issues,” he said.

A booklet containing regulations handed out by the state contains guidelines for minimizing the effects of traps on other users, Rinaldi said. Guidelines include avoiding high-use recreational areas, homes or trails frequently used by hikers, Rinaldi said.

“The interesting conundrum here is trapping is legal in these areas right now, however, off-leash dogs are illegal,” he said.

Trappers who set foot on private property without permission are trespassing, and should be referred to law enforcement, Rinaldi said.

Trappers say their particular form of public use is controversial, but equally legitimate to other forms of popular public land use. No trapper is trying to catch a dog, said Earl Bragg, an officer with the Alaska Frontier Trappers Association, a local chapter of the statewide Alaska Trappers Association.

“If somebody’s dog gets caught in a snare, we look bad,” he said. “It’s automatically our fault.”

The Association’s position, which contributed to the removal of the trapping section from the amendment to borough ordinance, is aggressively pro-trapping in part because trappers face a lack of understanding from a minority of people, Bragg said.

“The way we look at it, 10 percent of the people are anti-trapping,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s wildlife management or recreation.”

Bragg said trapping is a necessary part of responsible wildlife stewardship.

“It maintains a healthy ecosystem,” he said. “On a winter like this, nothing’s going to freeze to death.”

Both associations try to educate people about responsible trapping, and responsible users adhere to the ethical guidelines, Bragg added. That includes placing traps 25 yards or more from trailheads, and educating the public on how to open traps in the event that limbs — dog or human — become trapped or ensnared, Bragg said.

“That’s how we do it,” he said. “We don’t need regulations saying you can’t do this. We’re doing wildlife management.”

In addition, irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs roam bear at least some portion of the responsibility for their dogs’ injuries, Bragg added.

“We’re legal, you’re not,” he said.

Those words likely come as little comfort to some local residents. A flurry of incidents early in 2013 document at least two dogs becoming ensnared in and around the Settler’s Bay neighborhood, and one dog was reportedly shot and dumped in a lake after becoming entangled in a snare set on private property, according to letters sent to the Frontiersman at the time.

More recent reports are hard to come by, in part because dog owners are afraid to speak up, said Lynn Mitchell, co-founder of the Alaska Safe Trails group, which intends to address the issue.

“It’s really a public safety issue,” she said. “These traps, they’re like little landmines hidden on our property.”

The disparate locations where unethical traps are found, including incidents on the property of Houston High School, point to endemic abuses on the part of trappers requiring regulation, Mitchell said. She’s seen animals left in traps for weeks at a time, starving to the point where birds were pecking at them, and passersby have had to step in and perform mercy killings. Animals are sometimes left to starve in plain view of children and the elderly, Mitchell said.

“I know I’m being provocative here, but somebody has to,” she said.

Mitchell also disputes the borough’s interpretation of state code, and says the borough assembly could address the issue, if it had the political will to do so.

“Kenai borough and Fairbanks borough regulate this activity,” she said. “It’s not like we’re trying to ban trapping. We’re just trying to get them to do what they’re telling each other they should do.”

The Willow Dog Musher’s Association is also seeking opinions on the issue, according to secretary Jamie Wright. Dog mushers out practicing often encounter pet owners frantic about dogs who have become ensnared, though it usually doesn’t become a problem for the teams themselves, unless one of the dogs breaks free, Wright said.

“I’m trying to be part of the educational process as far as forwarding the warnings to people I know,” she said. “It’s really beyond most people to recognize that there may be a trap in that vacant lot across the street. It doesn’t have to be tagged. It’s just silently there and the potential is there.”

Specific stories about dogs suspected to have been snared can be found at alaskasafetrails.org. Educational materials about responsible trapping can be found online at akfrontiertrappers.com, alaskatrappers.org or adfg.alaska.gov.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.