So
You Want to Pre-stake Your Traps Before the Season
Article from Nov
- Dec 2002 Buckeye Trapper
by Kevin
O'Dell
Go to any trapping convention, or the evening camp fires after
the day's events, and sooner or later someone will bring up the
question about pre-staking traps before season. The first question
that comes up is “Is it legal to pre-stake traps before
season?” To answer that question you need to check with
your state wildlife agency to see how the wildlife laws are written
regarding pre-staking. All references to wildlife laws in this
article strictly apply to Ohio wildlife laws.
There are many forms of pre-staking traps before season: Digging
beds, setting stakes, staking snares and closing the loops, placing
the trap at the location and covering it up, staking traps off
to the side of a slide, etc. I’m not here to argue the pros
and cons of the topic. What I hope to do is explain the law on
trapping in Ohio and some of the issues that come up when trappers
pre-stake their traps. With that said let’s look at the
Ohio Revised Code and the definition of trapping.
“Trapping” means securing or attempting to secure
possession of a wild bird or wild quadruped by means of setting,
placing, drawing, or using any device that is designed to close
upon, hold fast, confine, or otherwise capture a wild bird or
wild quadruped whether or not the means results in the capture.
“Trapping” includes every act of assistance to any
other person in capturing wild birds or wild quadrupeds by means
of the device whether or not the means results in capture.
The first seven words of the Ohio Revised Code definition of
trapping spells it out. A person can pre-stake traps before season.
The reason is this; a person pre-staking traps and not actually
setting the trap is not attempting to secure the animal until
the trap is set to actually catch and hold the animal. Once the
trap is set then the trapper is in the act of trapping because
they are attempting to secure the animal with that particular
device.
There are several law enforcement issues that can come up when
a person elects to pre-stake their traps. Let’s look at
a couple examples.
Say that you decided to go out on one of the farms you have
permission to trap. You inform the farmer that you are going to
pre-stake some trap locations on his farm and that you will be
back on opening day to set the traps. You pre-stake several locations
and leave. Two days later you receive a phone call from that same
farmer informing you that you have a red fox in one of the snares.
When you arrive, you discover that someone has opened the loops
on all of the snares you had pre-staked. As you remove the fox
from the trap a State Wildlife Officer contacts you and arrests
you for taking a fox during the closed season. What you didn’t
know while you were pre-staking your traps is that an adjacent
landowner was watching. He was upset that you were there and decided
to set your traps and then reported you to the Turn in a Poacher
1-800 line for trapping out of season. I realize this an extreme
example but one that could occur.
Also, pre-staking traps, although legal, can appear to other
people as someone trapping out of season. They in turn contact
the local state wildlife officer. The officer responds and spends
several hours locating the traps, contacting the trapper and landowner,
only to discover that the trapper was just pre-staking his or
her traps. As you can see, there are several issues that can come
up when you pre-stake your traps.
Pre-staking traps is legal in Ohio as long as the trap is not
set. The Division of Wildlife does not encourage or discourage
pre-staking traps. Pre-staking traps is a decision each individual
trapper needs to make.
If you trap in other states please check with that state’s
wildlife agency on their current trapping regulations.
Keep your chains tight!
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