Trapper recalls cruelty in book
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Editor,
After 30 years in the military, Charles A. Wolf trapped for 10 years in Alaska’s Eastern Brooks Range. Thomas McGuire canoed with Wolf and McGuire’s diary became the book, “99 Days On The Yukon.”
Wolf says, “Trapping … I don’t know any old-timer who didn’t come to hate some parts of it. When you find a live animal in your traps you have to kill it somehow. I used to carry a .22 pistol to shoot them in the head, but a lot of trappers don’t like to do that because it leaves a hole in the pelt … There are a lot of different ways to kill the smaller animals, some trappers just stand on them to crush them, others have a way of grabbing their chest and pulling down real sharp, it breaks the heart loose somehow.” (Another graphic, disturbing method is omitted). “That sounds terrible, but all ways are cruel.”
Wolf continued, “On my trapline, I took mostly marten and they’d usually be dead by the time I checked the traps, but even that’s not nice to see. When the animal is caught it just gets frantic and runs around ‘till it’s exhausted and sweaty, then it freezes to death. When you find it, the snow is torn up all around it, beaten flat as far as the chain can reach and the animal is lying there frozen in its own excrement. You just know it died of fear.”
I can’t wait for this to end on the beautiful public lands I visit every chance I get. Please vote “yes” for Initiative 177.
Jessi Ferguson
Polson
