The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-12-20
TRAPPING.
Continued from Fourth Page.) )


 may see a woman wearing a single garment which has cost twenty inno- cent lives. taken under the most re- yolting circumstances. But to return to professional trapping: 4 paragraph in the current number of Shooting and Fishing will serve to give an idea of the cruelty involved. We also visited another spot where the Johnson boys had set bear trap last spring, but for got to go and visit it for some time, When they did call to look after it, they found dead bear in it, with the two bones of one of his legs still in the trap, and his skull and other parts of his anatomy lying around it. When We called to see it the two bones were still in the trap. Dr. Kelly took his skull with him, and his claws were divided amongst us. The accompanying kodak view shows the trap and bones just as we found them, and the marks of his claws on tree that he tried to climb to free himself from its jaws; but all was of no avail, for the evidences around where he died showed that his sufferings must have been intense, and death welcome relief. These traps are made of steel and weigh from thir- ty to forty pounds with chain and cle- wis attached. The clovis is fastened to rail from eight to ten feet long, and five or seven inches thick. After the bear gets into the trap he drags the rail along for short distance, when 1t usually gets fast and he can go no far ther. But by this time he is tired out, and makes no further violent efforts to free himself, and gives up the strug- gle" It requires but little imagination to picture the awful death of that great strong brute, tortured by limb-crush- ing trap, and mad with thirst and hun ger, for days, and perhaps weeks. The condition of the ground about the trap and the deep channels torn in the bark of the nearby trees by the mighty claws, tell the story of a fearful strug- gle the details of which will never be known. Of this We may be sure, that long before he died, he had grim visi- ened by hunger and pain he would no longer be able to defend himself.
 Nor is the above an isolated instance of the terrible cruelty inflicted on anil mals by trappers, who, for some req son or other, fail to regularly visit their traps. have recently seen a se- ries of photographs taken on the trail of trapper and showing many traps still holding the remains of birds and other creatures which had suffered un- told misery before death had released O ta- ly sets traps which he does not intend to visit. but the fact remains that in many cases they are not visited in time even to bestow the blessing of death upon the unfortunates that suffer that we may display our winter furs.
 Whatever may be said in defense of professional trapping, there Is little reason it would seem for the encOur- agement of amateur trapping, in the practice of which the animals are still more frequently subjected to great cru city. The professional visits his traps as regularly as he can do, as matter of business, but the amateur has many other interests and is usually much more liable to forget. I know two boys who are devoted to trapping the small CT animals just for sport" as they say. They are rather nice boys, too but very thoughtless. They will sometimes visit their traps regularly for a week, and then having had no success, they may leave them for days at a time. Natu- rally any animal which is caught in the meantime suffers until it dies. 1 Few people realize, I think, what 1t l means to an animal to be caught and | left in steel trap in winter. In the l first place, the jaws of the trap, pro- l pelled by strong and powerful spring, are very apt to break the bone of the 1 leg. This perhaps is the luckiest thing which could happen, under the circum- l stances, because, after several hours of struggling and gnawing, the wretch | ed creature may succeed in twisting off | the imprisoned member, and get away | to live, a cripple for the rest of its l days, or at least to die quietly In it's burrow But often the leg is not bro 1 ken: just jammed out of shape, caus- l ing intense pain accompanied by swell ! ing of the limb. As a rule the captive, 1 full of fear and agony. struggles fran tically to free itself. Finding that this | does nothing but increase it's suffering ! 1t will lie quiet for time and then be- gin to struggle afresh, more violently than before. Then perhaps comes the quietness of despair. The temperature falls to zero perhaps, or below it, and a cutting wind drives the snow hissing and stinging, through the naked woods. l Hour after hour, the creature lies, hun- gry. cold and tortured. Fortunate in- l deed 1t is if some other animal, a fox or l a wolf, kills it and tears it's body from the trap. Otherwise it must lie for ! ages, seemingly, until it slowly freezes 1 or starVes to death. How any one can i sit comfortably at home on winter night, knowing that owing to his care lessness such a tragedy as this may even then be taking place in the woods, is more than can tell. But they do 1t, some of them, as I have found out by disgusting experience.
 Personally thnk that amateur trap ping is a very unnecessary amusement, and I believe that any decent boy or man can be made to see the injustice, yes, the outrageousness of 1t. Looking at it from mercenary point of view even, it is not a profitable occupation, except in rare cases. Any one with or | dinary intelligence and half the energy 1 required to become a successful trap | per, can make more money at some | thing else and at the same time retain