"Free Roaming Dog Interference on My Trapline"
Photos
Before I get into the meat of this blog, I would like to say Thank You to the Walton County citizens who are responsible pet owners. By that I mean the ones who follow the ordinances concerning free roaming animals. I'm not going to quote them here because they are available for viewing on the Walton County website. Every year I run a trapline here in Walton, I will catch a free roaming dog or cat on occasion. Last year, on the Farm, I was checking traps and found one tripped in a pasture. I figured that it had been tripped by a deer and didn't think much about it. The scents, lures and baits I use on my line are specific chemical triggers that are instinctively very attractive to canines and cats. A few days later, the landowner called me and said he had received a very unkind phone call about me catching this owner's dog in a trap. He also told me that someone had trespassed onto his property and shot one of the coyotes I had caught 3 times in the head. I asked the landowner for the person's number and called them back. I found that the owner that lived across the lake lets his dog run loose quite a bit. He told me that it got caught in one of my traps on the Farm and he came over and let it loose. He also told me he shot the coyote that was in the other trap. I proceeded to inform him in a calm, clear but matter of fact way that:
1. It is clearly against State law for anyone to touch my traps but myself and the DNR.
2. He had trespassed twice onto this landowner's property to retrieve his dog and execute a wild animal that I had caught, which is also against State law.
I explained to him that I was under contract on this landowner's property thru the cattle birthing season and if I had any more issues with him or his dog, I would pay him a visit with Walton Animal Control, the DNR and the Walton County Sheriff's Department in tow. He then began backing up saying he tried to keep his dog up but it "got out sometimes"
Fortunately, I did not have any more issues other than I caught a wild pregnant feral bitch dog with no collar in a trap near the slough and some feral cats. The other day as I was setting traps back on this property for the upcoming calf season again, guess what I found. This perps' dog tracks AGAIN, on the Farm and they had come from the same house across the slough. So, trying to keep from catching it again, I went back up the logging road, further onto the cattle farm property and set my trap. Guess what, yesterday when I was running the line, I found that trap tripped and sitting outside of the trap bed. I have just installed brand new springs on my traps for this upcoming season and there is no way any canine could have escaped and left the trap as it was.
I will be back there today checking for footprints. If I find human tracks leading to the trap and back to that house, guess who I'm gonna call? Perhaps this guy didn't "understand" what I explained to him last year so an explanation from a Law Enforcement officer might get through to him. For the readers on the Patch, I am going to explain how I handle a caught domestic on my trapline. The technology of the traps today is much improved over the past. The jaws are very smooth and due to the design of a coyote's larger front foot, they are designed to hold them as you would grab someone by the wrist and hold on tight. They are designed with the animal's comfort in mind. They are NOT designed to injure, maim or anything of the sort. This is untrue propaganda put out by PETA and the HSUS to further their agenda. It is also to envoke emotional responses from the person who is uneducated in the realities of the major benefits my Profession provides. Many times I walk up on coyotes asleep in my traps. Any animal I catch other than Coyotes I released unharmed.
When I catch a domestic dog on my line:
1. I look to see if it has a collar and Rabies tag. If so, and it is friendly enough, I will release it and contact Walton Animal control to pick it up. I am not going to waste my time contacting an irresponsible pet owner to return his pet. He is going to Walton Animal.
2. If I catch a dog with no collar or Rabies tag. I leave it in the trap until Walton Animal Control can arrive. I have been dog bit before and I don't know if this animal is infected or not. The same goes for cats, domestic or feral.
There was a time when I was very young and lived in the country that my grandad had six dogs that stayed in his yard whenever he was outside, but I remember many nights lying in bed with the window open listening to those same dogs running deer, bobcats or whatever. Times have changed and laws have changed. You can be financially devastated if you have, what Georgia law considers a Vicious Dog", and it gets out and bites a child.
I am just asking the good citizens of Walton to be responsible. If you choose to have a pet, you assume the responsiblility and liability that comes with that decision.
Pat Thomas
2:23 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
Tim, I think that most folks are pretty much unaware of the fact that they are a part of Nature themselves, and not separate from it somehow. They simply assume that Nature fades back into the deep woods as humanity spreads out. "Keeps its distance," if you get what I'm saying.
But as you know I'm sure, Nature only moves if it feels like it must to survive. At the last count I was aware of, there are something like five times MORE deer in GA right now than there were 100 years before? So Nature (at least some parts of it) can't be doing TOO badly, and from your posts I'm gathering the 'yotes aren't doing too badly either.
People need to realize that pets left outdoors unattended and unrestrained become vectors for disease, and magnets for predators of all kinds, from bobcats and coyotes, to racoons and snakes, and even owls and hawks. People who ignore the law, and their resposibilities as pet owners, endanger not only their own pets' safety, but everyone's in the community.
Tim
5:12 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
So true Pat. Coyote populations are at their highest level here in the East. Even with the Urban Sprawl, as you say, people can have a den 50 yds from their back door and not even know. Many times in Urban areas, neighborhoods, the coyotes will adapt by not howling or yipping and advertising their presence.
Tim
5:14 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
Some estimates put the population of coyotes in the city limits of Chicago at around 300....they have been seen from helicopters running through Central Park in NYC.
Tim
5:16 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
But to get back on topic, I know that Walton Animal Control was taking in over 20 cats a day last summer. And when you see a sign on a telephone pole saying, Lost dog or cat.....especially this time of year, he's probably become coyote fodder.
ToJo
7:49 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
I applaud responsible trappers trying to curb the coyote population and the land owners that hire them. Coyotes are an invasive species east of the Miss River. They are devastating native species on a level second only to feral cats. We need to support responsible programs to reduce the number of coyotes and free roaming cats and dogs. By the way, I choose to share my life with cats and dogs. I help to keep them safe by providing them a safe secure place to live.
Tim
9:40 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
ToJo,
Thank you for your support! It is sincerely appreciated.
I am encouraged that Pat, you and other citizens understand the value of the services I provide in managing the Predator population. I can also tell you both are responsible owners that truly care about the welfare of your pets. I wish we had more owners like yourselves.
Pat Thomas
3:24 am on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Aww, now you're just being nice.
It's maybe easier for me, since I come and go from the subdivision at all hours and have seen glimpses of all the wildlife that shares the neighborhood. There's a surprising amount, including at least a dozen head of deer, a big rabbit warren (or several small ones), and 2-4 pairs of very quiet, very reflective yellow eyes that always surprise me when I see them. The deer I can hear coming through the brush. The eyes I never do, and I never see the head that holds them, either.
I wouldn't say we're the most urban of areas at all, but we're not wide-open farms, woods and thickets either. And while I admit that I enjoy living where a lot of wildlife does too, I just fail to see why MY pets have to suffer the stress of becoming a part of the local food chain.
Tim
5:44 am on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
No Pat, I am being Sincere. Sometimes our Profession is given a bad rap and I believe it is because many people are basically ignorant to what we actually do and the benefits to the community and wildlife populations we manage. One of my responsibilities to the community, I believe, is to debunk the myths about Trapping and help educate the general public concerning our highly skilled Profession. I do know this tho.....there is probably a slim to none chance that I'll have to release any of your pets from my traps.
Tim
5:52 am on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
I got a call yesterday from a Client in Columbus, Ga. who is having major coyote predation issues on her 1000 acre. Farm. She and her husband are losing chickens and they also raise horses and show them here at the International Horse Park in Conyers. She is concerned about the coyotes killing her foals that she has lots of money and time and emotion invested in. Horses are her life basically. This was WAY out of my service area. Her husband found my website online and she called me. She is at her wits end and wants me to come down and see what options I can offer for them. She says they hear about 5 different packs on different areas of the property every night. The coyotes are actually crossing the horse pasture to get to the chickens. Due to fuel costs and a 5 hr. round trip, I had to substantially raise my fee but she was willing to pay so I am making plans to head down there soon. She said that they had a room above the barn with a bathroom, bed and shower I could stay in overnight. I will spend all day riding the property on ATV's with her husband, scouting, evaluating and she want's the entire tract trapped. She initially asked if I could come now for two weeks and they would put me up.....since I am under contract on the Cattle Farm, that is not possible now, but may be in the near future. There are no other Professional Coyote Trappers near her so I feel sure I can help them out.
Tim
8:34 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Rode the line on a night time trap check this evening and drove up on a pregnant feral bitch dog in one of my traps.....not good, not good at all, especially at night. No collar, no tag, very, very aggressive.....It makes me angry that irresponsible people continue to allow their dogs to run free or just throw em out on someone else's property. Ferals can be more dangerous to humans than coyotes. They also kill newborn calves. They are not nearly as efficient killers as coyotes and typically leave an animal mutilated to die a slow agonizing death. The coyote grabs the prey by the throat and suffocates it in just a minute or two. They also consume the animal where ferals tend to kill just for the thrill of killing.
Tim
5:44 am on Thursday, February 21, 2013
And I am not going to allow a pregnant feral dog that the owner obviously did not care about have a litter of pups on my Client's property and then have to kill a newborn calf to make milk for herself to feed em. Ain't gonna happen on my watch!