Steel-jaw Traps

REALITY CHECK

Steel-jaw traps, both leghold and body-gripping, are produced in a wide variety of sizes, from 4 inches (mink, muskrat) to 12 inches (bears). They are easily available to trappers, hunters, and exterminators for profit, recreation, or "nuisance" wildlife control. Baited with canned fish (tuna and sardines) and animal parts, traps attract all species indiscriminately. These violent devices are most often set into a shallow hole with a chain connected to a swivel and then a 2-foot rebar stake, everything disguised with sifted earth, grass, or leaves. Those caught might be killed outright, die from exposure or dehydration or predation or bleeding, or suffer agonizing severe physical trauma, like a crushed limb. Some trappers will shoot their catch with a .22 caliber short barrel rifle in the head. Most animals are clubbed or stomped to death.

Trapping has been banned in Israel.