It is designed to snap shut on the spinal column at the base of the skull for a quick kill. However, the trap often misses this vital spot or does not close with enough force to kill the animal instantly or even render the animal unconscious. The trap s jaws frequently clamp down on the chest or pelvis, crushing bones, blood vessels, and nerves and causing excruciating pain and a prolonged death. It can take a beaver more than six minutes to die in a body-gripping trap on land and up to nine minutes underwater. The steel-jaw leghold trap was declared inhumane by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Snares are the most primitive, indiscriminate, and inhumane traps used legally in the United States.
Most snares today are made by the trappers themselves, either from wire or airplane cable. Snares are cheap, easy to make, easy to transport, easy to abandon in bad weather, and easy to replace if stolen or damaged. As the trapped animal struggles, the snare tightens. As with leghold traps, animals caught in leg snares often injure themselves further as they struggle. These traps are particularly cruel to their primary targets coyotes, foxes, and wolves because the significant musculature around these animals tracheas and common carotid arteries slows death.