Recognizing and Avoiding Wildlife Traps Video Now Available

A new educational video - Avoiding Wildlife Traps While Walking your Dog - is now available on Idaho Fish and Game's website. Intended to aid dog owners, the video shows the variety of traps and snares you may encounter while hiking or walking your dog and how to recognize them. Some traps and trap sets can be very visible if you know what to look for. However, many traps will be difficult to spot; it depends on the species targeted. The intent of this video is to aid viewers in knowing what to look for to help them make decisions about whether to keep their dogs on-leash in certain areas. The 9-minute video, created by Idaho Fish and Game is available at: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/trap along with a companion 8-minute video released earlier, Releasing Your Dog from a Trap that explains how a variety of traps work and how to release your dog from traps. Although Fish and Game does not know exactly how many dogs are caught in traps each year and not reported, trapper harvest reports indicate an increasing number of incidental dog catches over the last several years. In the 2012-2013 trapping season, 32 accidental dog captures were documented. 52 dog captures were reported during the 2013-2014 season. In response to this increase in the number of incidents, and a heightened concern voiced by dog owners, Fish and Game developed these two instructional videos. Kennel clubs, gun dog and sportsmen groups, neighborhood associations and dog training clubs are encouraged to post the video on their websites. If you have any questions, please contact your local Fish and Game office.