| Mar 25, 2015


At a meeting of the Frontenac-Addington Trappers Council (FATC) on February 26th at the hall in Henderson, a young man in camo is handing out raffle tickets at the door for prizes to be drawn at the end of the night.

A group, mostly men, stand around chatting about the weather and their jobs with styrofoam cups of hot coffee in their hands.

These relaxed meetings of the FATC take place almost monthly and are a chance for local trappers to connect and converse and it gives Wilf Deline, the president of the FATC, an opportunity to update its members on any news in the trapping industry. The meeting is mixed discussion about their Big Gull Lake ice fishing tournament, deer ticks and Lyme disease, GPS training, local bald eagle populations, accidental trappings and more.

The Frontenac-Addington Trappers Council is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1981. Their focus isn't just on trapping wildlife but also on fostering conservation and stewardship throughout the area. These conservation efforts have led to the establishment of winter deer feeders, pickerel spawning beds, a bursary program for local schools, and many other community initiatives. Each year they host an ice fishing tournament on Big Gull Lake, which helps fund their projects throughout the year. This year's tournament, in February, sold over 400 tickets, and brought out adults and kids for a day of fishing and events on the ice.

The FATC works closely with the Ontario Fur Managers Federation (OFMF) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) to help shape regulations around trapping in Ontario. These local trappers are often called on to help deal with nuisance beavers and problematic animals that can cause road flooding and habitat destruction. The MNRF uses data collected by trappers, in the field, to govern catch limits, monitor species population, and keep a finger on the pulse of what's happening out in the woods. This information, provided by the trappers, helps supplement the heavy workload the ministry faces in Eastern Ontario, as they monitor this massive, constantly-evolving tract of forest and lakes.

Trapping in Frontenac County and the surrounding areas has a rich history.

At the Frontenac Heritage Festival in February, the FATC set up a booth at the Arden Community Centre displaying pelts, traps and photos of some of the conservation work they are doing in the area. I was able to chat with Isaac Hale, an Arden resident and active member of the FATC. Hale is a young, friendly guy, well-versed on the rules and regulations of trapping in Ontario, and was keen to answer my questions. He explained that in order to become a trapper in Ontario you must complete the Fur Harvest, Fur Management and Conservation Course. The ministry website explains that the training course, taught by MNR-licensed instructors, is a 40-hour program “emphasizing safety and humane trapping, survival skills, good pelt preparation and sustainable management.” Hale, who has been trapping for less than a year and has a trapline set up just south of Arden, is passionate about stewardship and explained to me how trapping has deepened his emotional connection with his surroundings and magnified his feelings of responsibility for the well-being of the land he traps on. He was able to show me some of the legal traps that are currently being used to trap animals in the area, from killing traps like Conibear traps and snares to restraining traps such as leg-holds. He explained that restraining traps must be inspected daily and for Hale this means going out on his snowshoes into the woods to inspect his line and see if anything has been caught.

For the most part, fur trapping starts in the fall, with seasons for most species opening in October and going until late-winter or spring. The season can be hard to define because, although trapping for certain species have strict time periods, some trappers work throughout the year trapping nuisance animals.

Fishers and muskrat are popular with local trappers, followed by beaver and coyote.

Wilf Deline, the head of the FATC and a fourth generation trapper, asked me to introduce myself, saying “[we] need to know your name to put it on your tombstone.”

His comments, although made in humour, point to the difficult relationship an organization like this can have with the press, and the publicity around a recent incident in Peterborough has made that relationship more thorny than ever.

A dog was accidentally caught, and later died in a Conibear trap near Peterborough in December of 2014.

The dog owner, Valerie Strain, has since started an online petition, which has garnered over 45,000 signatures, asking the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to start a public awareness campaign about the dangers posed to pets by these traps and also requesting that they publish maps online showing registered trap line areas.

She is also asking the MNR to set a minimum distance that traps can be set from public trails as well as to introduce new regulations for signage of trap lines.

A similarly tragic incident occurred recently much closer to home, when a local couple from McDonalds Corners, who wished to remain anonymous, had their dog killed in a Conibear trap a couple hundred metres from their house in January of this year. Their dog, Toby, a Border Collie/Australian Shepherd cross, was active and playful, and their only pet.

The legally-set trap that killed him was baited with a squirrel and placed on private property, several feet off a rural side road that doubles as a snowmobile trail in the winter. Toby wandered off the trail, while off-leash, presumably attracted to the meat on the trap, and was caught in it at the neck.

(Photo of site where Toby was killed)

The body-gripping traps that were involved in both of these cases, better known as Conibear traps, are named after Canadian inventor Frank Conibear, who invented the trap in the late 1950s. Considered by trappers to be a great innovation in their industry, the Conibear trap is designed to lure an animal with bait and then clamp shut upon on the animal's neck, closing the trachea, restricting blood flow to the brain, and sometimes even snapping the animal's spinal cord. The animal loses consciousness after a few minutes and then, ideally, dies quickly afterwards. Unfortunately, in the case of Toby, the owners had to witness the slow death of their dog as the trap wasn't strong enough to kill him instantly.

When I spoke with the couple in McDonalds Corners several weeks later they were still visibly shaken by the event. They both struggled emotionally when explaining how things happened, but they were also hopeful that raising awareness of trapping practices in the community could make a positive difference moving forward.

“...at least some awareness would be good so we know where not to go,” one of them said.

The fate of the dog from McDonalds Corners was discussed at a meeting of the Frontenac Addington Trapper's Council (FATC) meeting in Henderson on February 26.

“No trapper ever wants to catch anyone's pet. We all have pets and we love them and don't want to see them dead. The pet owners have to take responsibility for their pet like I have to take responsibility for mine, and my children,” said Willis Deline, a FATC member.

Jolanta Kowalski, the Senior Media Relations Officer from the MNR, said that the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, Bill Mauro, had requested that MNRF staff “look into options that might ultimately reduce the chance of a pet being caught in a trap.” She did not know how often these incidents happen, saying that the MNR only becomes aware of them through public complaints and doesn't keep a record of them.

Kowalski said, “If people are walking their dogs on private property we [MNRF] suggest they get permission from the landowner and ask if trapping is occurring on the property and find out from the landowner where traps are set.” She also said, “Always keep your dogs on a leash.”

In the case of the incident in McDonalds Corners, the trapper was “properly licensed and had permission to be on the property. The trap was legally set and in season.” Kowalski explained. “No charges will be laid.”

The fatal trap in this incident was set by Lanark trapper Terry Bingley, who also happens to be a director for the Fur Manager Federation, and has been trapping since 1970.

When I spoke to Bingley in early March he was still noticeably upset about the incident. In the 40 plus years he has been trapping he told me “that's the first dog I've caught...I put 80 traps out a night from the 1st of December to the 15th of January...that's a lot of traps...”

(photo of conibear trap)

Most of the trappers in attendance at the meeting in Henderson seemed to agree that they needed to stay pro-active, post signs where the public can best see them, and to let people in their community know where they're trapping. The group is concerned that going as far as revealing exactly where their trap lines are placed would encourage tampering by activists, animal rights organizations, or thieves.

“There is a slight danger in that if you get some of these airheads... who have nothing better to do...you've told them you've got traps somewhere there so they're going to go mess with them,” said Wilf Deline.

Terry Bingley had 12 traps stolen last year and has had a few go missing this year as well. Bingley said he makes around $10,000 a year trapping and about half of that goes back into the economy in gas, clothing, ammunition, guns, etc. When asked why he continues to do it if the financial return is so small, he said “I enjoy it. It's like playing. You do it because you enjoy it,”

(photo of OFMF sign)

The OFMF printed a brochure to educate the public on trapping and how to prevent incidents with pets, as well as providing signs for trappers to purchase and post near their trap lines. The signs warn people that traps have been set in the area and these can work as a preventative measure to hopefully reduce accidental trappings.

Willis Deline said, “We're fighting hard...for us to not lose our rights to trap on these trails that we trapped long before there was a trail there. The dog was running large. He broke the law. But she [the pet-owner] never gets charged. It's always the trapper that looks bad...but we gotta keep educating ... try to dog-proof.”

I asked Ministry rep. Kowalski if it's possible to dog-proof a trap and she said, “Yes, traps can be set off the ground out of reach of dogs.” The OFMF code of conduct, as published on their website, states that, “Traps should never be set where cats and dogs or other unwanted animals may get caught.”

Terry Bingley explained how trappers can dog proof their traps by setting them up off the ground on logs and setting the traps in boxes where a dog has a harder time getting at it.

“You're never going to be able to completely stop it but we can certainly avert a lot of it...we do have to convince more trappers to do better sets.”

But calls for legislated minimum distances from trails are not reasonable, according to Willis Deline.

“How are they going to identify a public trail? Is it going to be the snowmobile trail you've been using on Crown land?” he said, pointing out that the distance from the trail rule would mean more work for the trappers, having to trudge through knee-deep snow to check their traps as well as limiting them from certain areas where target species are known to travel.

Then there is the matter of enforcement if new restrictions come in.

“The MNR does not have the field staff to deal with all the issues they've already got. Increasing the legislation and creating more rules and regulations would do nothing without more manpower. Why create laws you can't enforce?” said Isaac Hale.

The FATC composed a letter to Minister Mauro expressing their concerns about the current petition that asks for more restrictions to the trapping industry and suggests that “more unnecessary regulations are not the answer. Better communications between the trapper and the general public...would be more productive.”

One of the trappers' concerns is that it's easy to buy a trap online and use it without any prior education on how to trap safely and ethically.

The group felt that governing the purchase of these traps should be similar to the way guns and ammunition are purchased. They suggested that a buyer should have to show a trapper's license, or something similar, before being allowed to purchase a trap.

Wilf Deline summed up the way trappers feel.

“We get a little frustrated...because we're the guys that work on the pickerel spawning beds, we're the guys that feed the deer, we're the guys that blow the whistle when there's a problem in the bush with disease or anything else and we just wanna keep on doing that and we don't wanna get into this media circus.” He asked, “who else is out there doing what we do?” and a local trapper added, “for free!”

For more information on the Frontenac-Addington Trappers Council and trapping in the area you can go to www.trapon.org.

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