At least a half dozen dogs and one person were accidentally caught in traps in Alaska last winter and at least one or those accidents killed a dog.
That’s according to a report from the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for more trapping restrictions.
The report, called Map the Trap, relied on dozens of submissions from the public about trap encounters. Several described close encounters with traps near trails and roadways, and one man said he was pulled off his motorbike after a snare caught his foot on a trail in the Mat-Su.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance director Nicole Schmitt says the organization realized there was a need to compile anecdotal evidence about trap encounters earlier this year.
Schmitt said, "There's no centralized database for trap encounters, be it through ADF&G or state troopers or wildlife troopers. Each agency if they do track it is tracking it within their own bubble of authority. And so the goal with this project was to really understand the scope of trap encounter issues, especially on multi use areas."
Schmitt says the group hopes to continue the Map the Trap project next year, and is asking the public to submit their reports at A K Wildlife dot org (akwildlife.org).