I am hoping that someone can explain the mechanics of one type of animal trap. See poor partial picture below…and my visual inspection discussion below.
Yesterday I climbed up into the mountain behind my house to try to save a small deer caught in a trap. I was able to cut the wire cable but the deer took off before I could grab him and try to release the snare on his leg.
If this happens again I want to be prepared with knowledge how to completely free the animal.
This happened at night and I was trying to not scare the deer any more as he was flailing around vigorously…I was worried he would break his leg….so I focussed on cutting the wire as my first step.
Anyway, this is what I saw:
-snare around the animals leg. I only briefly touched the leg and could not see clearly the snare wire construction.
-spring coil. This seemed to be linked to the snare. I stretched out the spring coil in hopes of loosening up the snare but could not see any effect.
-PVC pipe. One piece was loose and near the snare. Another longer piece was farther up and contained part of the spring.
-wing screw/nut. This was at the upper part of the PVC pipe. I loosened the screw which fell out of the pipe. This MIGHT have been attached to the spring.
-steel wire. I am not sure if the wire reached all the way from the anchor point to the snared leg (meaning maybe was attached to the spring and did not run through middle of spring). The wire may or may not have been looped over a small tree. I pulled the tree down so I could have more wire near me so easier to cut.
Next time I hope to actually straddle the deer to hold him down and work directly on the snare. This sounds easy but depends on location. Yesterday, I had to spend 5 minutes cutting away thorn bushes just to have a place to work and try to keep the deer from getting tangled in the bushes as well. While I am doing this the deer is thrashing around. I tried to put a towel over the deer’s head to calm him down but that did not work well as I was not holding him down.
My hope is the snare loosened when the main steel wire was cut. My fear is that the snare and even the PVC pipe and spring are still attached to the deer.
My question is how exactly does this type of snare work? Any insights would be helpful. I have tried to google animal snares but cannot find a similar enough device…especially with the spring inside PVC with a wing screw/nut. I just hope that I do not have to work directly on the trapped animal’s foot as that is tough but assume that might be the only way to completely release the animal.
Yes, we’ve encountered a couple of these recently. They seem to be a new design, able to keep the wire better hidden along the ground rather than stretching up into a bent tree limb. It also protects the wire from being chewed through by the stricken animal.
The spring is set inside the pipe, so that, when the animal steps into the loop at the far end, it triggers the spring to force the pipe against the animal’s leg, locking the snare. Usually, the spring would work the other way: rather than being compressed to then push the loop shut, it’s stretched to then pull the end of the wire, thus closing the noose end around the leg.
Where did you find it? If I know the location, I can (a) show you how it can be dismantled, and (b) catch the person who set it.
The trap was found at the mountain at Liyu Lake in Hualien. I heard the deer’s screams from my house so went to investigate.
I have not gone back into the mountain to see if any of the trap can be found (if parts fell off when the deer bolted away). I had to carry a ladder from my house to cross a deep cement waterway.
Traps also being set down the Hualien coast near Jici. Came across 2 blokes in a blue truck, traps in the back, along with plenty of cages. Couple of days later found a local stray dog with a nasty trap injury, tendons ripped, flesh open to the bone.
May I ask ACT stands for what? I need to tell my wife as she will make any calls. She has called various departments but since the traps in our area are most likely an aboriginal group each department is reluctant to even discuss.
Our problem here is farmers asks an aboriginal group to kill the mountain pigs eating their vegetables. Well, these guys have guns and go around killing and trapping what they want while just saying they are after pigs. No one seems to challenge them. They do not need to go into the mountain behind us as they can trap the pigs on the farmland…but they seem to use this excuse to go everywhere on anyone’s land…night and day. Since this type of deer I saw trapped is no longer a protected animal (starting this year) seems even though they are trapping on government’s land hard to find a department that will care. And one department my wife called said that this type of snare trap is okay. I guess maybe all is okay with trapping like this anywhere.
We’re a UK animal-rescue charity, Animal Care Trust.
If they don’t have a license, it’s illegal. Most don’t bother getting the license. And we need to maintain pressure so that this ‘traditional’ inhumane practice can finally be eradicated.
The trap I saw was almost identical to this. Well, could have been exactly the same…was dark and confusing.
So exactly how did you release the dog? Did you have to work close to his leg?
For my case, my hope was that cutting the steel wire would release the snare loop around the deer’s leg…and the coil wire and rest would fall away…but that is probably wishing too much.
I did release one wing/screw nut. However, I wonder if was right one. Would there be more than one? I remember the wing nut was on the other side (not next to the snare holding the deer) of the spring coil…which was at other side of pvc pipe away from the deer.
When I first arrived I pulled at the spring coil hoping to loosen it up but with deer thrashing about could not see if had any effect. Releasing the wing nut seemed to allow the coil to move about more but the deer was still in the snare…but he was pulling away all the time so maybe is why no change in his status. But when I cut the steel wire he immediately ran away. But was at night and so fast I could not see if all of the wire, pvc pipe and spring coil were still attached to him.
No don’t do that. You’ll get in serious legal trouble for that and talking about it on an open forum will incriminate you should someone decides to do it.
For dismantling snare traps, get a good battery powered angle grinder for even an oxyacetylene torch with portable tanks and it will dismantle just about anything.
I have seen blur trucks set up with oxyacetylene rigs with large tanks.
