Barbarism

I am so angry.

Pixie - that delightful husky whippet mix who runs with my friends Jim and Jane - was caught in a double spring-loaded steel trap Saturday. Jim and Pixie were out hiking on a public forest road in the mountains above their house in Riggins, ID. Pixie smelled the lure scent and went to investigate. The trap was only 15 feet off the road. No signs were posted warning of trapping in the area.

Believe it or not, no signs are required by Idaho law. Signs are recommended by Fish & Game, yes, but only so the public won't "misunderstand" trapping and trappers. Only so there won't be negative interactions between recreational users of public lands and trappers. Trapping for "furbearers" is allowed in winter months.

Sometimes I feel like I've fallen through a time warp. I can't understand how any state can be so backward and barbaric in its thinking and practices.

Pixie bit Jim several times, out of fear and pain, as he tried to free her. He finally was able to put his emptied fanny pack over her head with one hand while he used a foot and his free hand to release the two springs on the trap. Pixie seems to have survived with only scrapes on one leg. Jim has several puncture wounds on his hands, some that required stitches.

Jim knows the guy who sets these traps. A neighbor. Jim has asked, in the past, that the guy tell him where he's setting traps so they can be avoided. The guy won't speak to him. The trap was gone when Jim went back the day after.

I took this photo of Jim and Pixie at the end of a run we all did this past summer. They're on a road not unlike the one he and Pixie were on Saturday.

This fills me with such anger and sadness. I feel helpless to change things, hopeless for the future. Frustrated. Angry.