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Types of animal traps – learn what they are, why they are inhumane, and how to save your pets

Types of Traps

Traps and snares indiscriminately lure in wildlife and pets. Animal traps fall under two categories: restraining and killing. Restraining traps hold the animal until the animal dies or the trapper arrives to kill it. Kill traps are meant to result in immediate death and are used either on land or underwater. The terrestrial versions snap the neck or spine. Underwater traps are intended to render the animal unconscious until death—they do not always do so.

Traps do not discriminate between species and often non-target animals are caught. They can capture or kill threatened and endangered species, birds, domestic animals, and even humans.

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Restraining Traps Versus Kill Traps

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Animals frequently sustain injuries from restraining traps, including physiological trauma, dehydration, exposure to weather, predation by other animals, and even death. Animals released from restraining traps may later die from injuries and/or reduced ability to hunt or forage for food.

Leg-hold traps, a type of restraining trap consisting of two jaws that clamp onto an animal’s leg or foot, are so abhorrent that 80 countries and some U.S. states (including Arizona, California, and Colorado) have essentially banned them.

Kill traps work by crushing, choking, or drowning the trapped animal.

Some propose that if the purpose of capturing an animal is to kill it, then kill traps may be more suitable because the animal is not left in pain, in shock, dehydrated, and at risk for predation, but kill traps are enormously faulty. They can cause a slow, painful, and stressful death for both trapped animals and those that manage to escape the trap. The American Veterinary Medical Association has weighed in against kill traps, noting that they are controversial because they can produce a prolonged, stressful death not within the AVMA’s criteria for euthanasia (2007).

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Megan Sweeney

Wild Places Intern

Megan is a rising 3L at the University of Oregon School of Law. Originally from Jupiter, Florida, she grew up scuba diving, snorkeling, and hiking in a state with unique ecosystems such as everglades and coral reefs, shaping her into the environmentally conscious individual she is today. Working at a sea turtle hospital and watching toxic algae blooms negatively affect both coral reefs and endangered species inspired her to drive positive change and pursue a career in environmental law.

She attended the University of Florida and graduated in 2018 with a BS in Marine Science with minors in Mathematics and Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. After graduation, she worked as an intern at JLA Geosciences, a hydrogeological contracting firm where she learned the importance of sustainable water and land management. Megan is very involved with the environmental law community through her leadership roles in the Land Air Water Environmental Law Society. Megan helped organize both the 2020 and 2021 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) through her positions as a 1L Representative and a Conference Co-Director. During her 3L year she will serve as a Land Air Water Co-Director. She has also been involved with the University Oregon’s Environmental and Natural Resources Center as a Fellow on the Oceans, Coasts, and Watersheds Project.

Her research is focused on Biocriteria and reforming the CWA to better protect coral reefs and better address agricultural runoff. During her 2L year she also competed in the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition. During the summer of 2020 she worked for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. In the fall of 2020, she had a judicial externship at the U.S. District Court District of Oregon working for the Honorable Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai. Megan is very excited to gain further litigation skills by working in the Wildlife Program at the Portland Office of WildEarth Guardians.

Tessa Archibald

WIldlife Program Intern

Tessa Archibald is a passionate animal lover with a desire to preserve our natural world and increase respect for all species. She obtained a BS in Biopsychology from Tufts University and is currently working towards a Masters in Animals and Public Policy at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She hopes that an understanding of complex human animal interactions and policy will promote more empathetic management of wildlife across all lands!

Joe Bushyhead

Endangered Species Policy Advocate

Joe Bushyhead joined Guardians in May 2021 as our Endangered Species Policy Advocate. Based in Denver, he works to protect imperiled Western species as well as the integrity of the Endangered Species Act itself.

Prior to Guardians, Joe spent seven years as a staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and clerked for the Honorable Tena Campbell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. He holds a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law. Before law school, he worked for the Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries Resource Management on, among other projects, a study of Chinook salmon in Idaho’s South Fork of the Salmon River watershed.

Hailey Zimber

Research Intern

My name is Hailey Zimber and I am a rising senior majoring in Politics at Whitman College. I am thrilled to be joining WildEarth Guardians as a research and community organizing intern for the Greater Gila Campaign. As a born and raised New Mexican, the Greater Gila is one of the silos of wilderness that have shaped who I know myself to be. Protecting the Gila means protecting myself, my state, and my community, and for this reason, this position is especially meaningful to me.

Tricia Snyder

Rio Grande Campaigner

Tricia, as a child of military parents, spent much of her childhood moving frequently in the U.S. and abroad, but calls El Paso, TX home. Growing up on the banks of the (often dry) Rio Grande and the water scarcity of the Southwest sparked a life-long interest in finding solutions for water conflicts in the arid and semi-arid American West. Tricia received a B.S. in Geography with a focus on human-environment connection from New Mexico State University. Her research while there centered on water management across borders. She spent 5 years working with the Southwest Environmental Center working to protect and restore the wildlife and wild places of the Southwest borderlands, particularly focused on the recovery of the Mexican gray wolf. In 2015, Tricia moved to Washington state to pursue a graduate degree, receiving an M.S. in Cultural and Environmental Resource Management from Central Washington University. Her thesis, which conducted an adaptive capacity assessment of the Upper Klamath Basin, utilized both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She worked for nearly four years on salmon recovery as the Lead Entity Coordinator for the Yakima Basin in central Washington, bringing together a diverse group of interests and perspectives. Tricia joined WildEarth Guardians as the Rio Grande Campaigner in 2021.

Types of animal traps – learn what they are, why they are inhumane, and how to save your pets

Types of Traps

Learn How to Release Your Dog From a Leg-hold Trap

Restraining Traps Versus Kill Traps

Make Our Public Lands Cruelty-Free

How You Can Help

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