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On January 3, Annee Price set out for a hike from the Clark Ranch trailhead near Park City, Utah, with her dog, a border collie named Freyja, when something in the bushes caught the canine’s eye.
As the Park Record of Park City reported, the dog wandered off the path to investigate it, then suddenly disappeared into the bushes. Freyja had stepped into an unmarked leghold trap which had clamped closed onto her back paw. Price was stuck nearly a mile from her car, trying to figure out how to remove the device’s metal jaws from her injured pet. After struggling with the trap for about 20 minutes, Price finally freed Freyja, and the dog made it home with nothing worse than a sore paw.
But other hikers and their canine companions haven’t been so lucky. Trail dogs regularly suffer injuries or die after getting caught in traps set for fur-bearing wildlife like beavers, foxes, and bobcats. Dogs that get their necks caught in snares or body grip traps can asphyxiate in minutes. If you and your dog live or hike in one of the 47 states where some kind of trapping is legal, it’s essential to know how to get them out. (That applies even if you normally hike with a leash—a good idea in areas with trapping activity, whether or not it’s required.)
Calming Your Dog—And Yourself
Before you get to work on the trap, try to calm or restrain your dog as much as possible. A panicking dog will not only put more tension on the trap and make it harder to release, it may also bite you as you attempt to free it. If your dog is stuck in a leghold trap, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game recommends covering its face with a coat or shirt.
Next, take a deep breath and identify what kind of trap your pet is stuck in. There are three main types of traps you might encounter in the woods; while all of them operate differently, they can all be opened either by hand or with simple materials any hiker should have with them. (Tip: While the opening mechanisms for all three are fairly simple, even simple tasks can become difficult when you’re under stress. If you hike in an area with heavy trapping activity, consider buying or borrowing a few kinds of traps and snares and practicing opening them until it feels natural.)
How to Release Your Dog From a Leghold Trap
Designed to catch canids like foxes, coyotes and wolves, these traps consist of a pair of steel jaws with a foot plate in the middle. When an animal steps on the plate, a pair of springs snaps the jaws shut, holding the animal in place. While this is the type of trap least likely to kill your dog, it can still cause injuries to their extremities.
There are several different varieties of leghold trap, but all open in more or less the same way. You’ll need to compress a spring on one or both sides of the trap to relieve pressure on the jaws. In a coil spring trap (pictured), you’ll push down with the soles of your feet or the heels of your hands on a lever on either side of the tap to open the trap; on a long spring trap, which has a long spring in the shape of a pair of kitchen tongs, you’ll push down directly on the spring itself. Do that, and your dog should be able to pull its leg out. Need a visual? Here’s Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game demonstrating.
How to Release Your Dog From a Snare
One of the simplest kinds of traps, a snare is essentially a wire noose with a locking mechanism of some kind designed to pull tighter as prey struggles. If your dog gets its neck caught in one, it’s essential to work quickly before it suffocates.
If your dog’s struggling is pulling the snare tighter, you may be able to unstake it to make the job of freeing them easier. While snares use a variety of different locking mechanisms, they all open basically the same way. Grab the loop around your dog’s neck on either side of the locking mechanism—the red circles in the picture above—and pinch or push those two points together to relieve tension on the mechanism, allowing it to uncam, then slide the snare open. (Note: While it’s possible to cut a snare wire with a pair of dedicated cable cutters, you won’t be able to do it with your multitool.)
Confused? Watch South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks demonstrate in this video.
How to Release Your Dog From a Body Grip Trap
Often called “Conibears” after a popular brand, body grip traps are designed to snap shut around the neck or torso of a small furbearing animal when it walks through. Unfortunately, curious canines that stick their heads through one can end up strangled. While body grip traps may look complicated, they open much like a leghold trap. Just squeeze the springs on either side of the trap’s opening (circled in red) and secure them with the small metal catch (circled in blue).
It takes a bit of muscle power to open, but if you’re not strong enough to squeeze the springs closed with your hands, you can use your dog’s leash or a bootlace. Run it up through the circles of metal connecting the spring to the trap’s body, then around and up through again to create a loop. Put your foot in the leash loop or stand on it and pull on the other end to compress the spring and force the trap open. Watch Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game demonstrate in the video below.
Reporting Illegal Traps
Even in states where trapping is legal, trappers usually have to follow state regulations; in Idaho, for example, laws prohibit trappers from placing traps within 10 feet of a marked public trail or 300 feet of a campground or trailhead. If you believe you’ve found an illegally placed trap on a hike, note the location, take a picture, and report it to your local wildlife department.