When Joy Bannister, a Boston, Mass., animal control officer, found her, the dog had leghold traps clamped on both back paws and on one of her front legs. She was crying as she did from the pain. Cindy was freed from the traps, but had to be euthanized because of the severity of her injuries. After lying for hours or even days in traps, these animals are beaten or stomped to death when the trapper arrives. Others, especially mothers with hungry babies to feed, chew off their limbs as Cindy did in an effort to escape the torment, only to die later of blood loss or infection or because they are too weak to flee from predators.
Leghold traps seize animals and birds by their legs, stomachs, wings, and faces.
Seventy-one countries, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, have banned the barbaric leghold trap. So have Florida, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and, just this fall, Colorado and Massachusetts. The European Union has banned the importation of fur from countries that use it.