Trapping
 

A long death

Because they are shy and reclusive, pine martens are not shot but trapped. Traps are set up where the animals preferably dwell, i.e. on trees. Sometimes, the traps are sprayed with special odors to lure the animals, e.g. urine or other secretions. An animal that walks into a trap will be painfully jammed. Often enough, the traps snap shut where the animals suffer the greatest pain, i.e. at their snouts or close to their eyes. Confused, in pain and in fear, the animals attempt to free themselves, thus dislocating their joints and injuring themselves severely. In order to free themselves, they sometimes bite off their own limbs. Pine martens caught in tree traps often find themselves hanging in the air from a tree branch. Even if an animal is able to free itself from the trap, it hardly has a chance of surviving. It dies of infections, starves to death or becomes easy prey for other animals. Animals unable to free themselves die a long and painful death – if trappers do not find them quickly and beat them to death or if predators do not eat them.

 

An additional problem involves other animals – what is often referred to as by-catch – being inadvertedly caught in the traps. Amongst them, not only protected wild animals but also domestic animals, such as dogs and cats.

 

Trapping for fur must be refused for animal protection reasons. It has nothing to do with game keeping or hunting in order to preserve wildlife within the scope of intelligent wildlife management and control – although this is often falsely used as an argument by the fur industry.

 

A slow death

Toter Fichtenmarder
© Lyonheart / flickr.com
 

CAUTION!

The following film demonstrate hard facts and therefore may not be suited for everyone, in particular not the sensitive!

 

A trapped marten