Sad Story in this Week's Chronicle Herald Letters

In the January 17th edition of the Chronicle Herald Letters to the Editor there was the following letter:

The Halifax Herald Limited 01/17/2007, Page A08
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Trapped at home

Three years ago, our beloved Rufus, a Labrador retriever mix, disappeared during an outing on our farm with my husband and our young son Matthew. We looked unsuccessfully until midnight and decided to wait until morning to search again. During the night, our son awoke to Rufus’s cries and set off without a flashlight. Matthew found him in a leg-hold trap and was just able to cut it loose and carry Rufus to safety. Our son rescued our dog because he loves him with all his heart.

In the morning, we found a cluster of various traps where Rufus was caught. We loveRufus and Matthew. Perhaps when rescuing our dog, Matthew could have become entangled, trapped as well.

What laws protect my son, my family? We have never given permission for any trapper to come onto our property. We reported this to the Department of Natural Resources. They said everything was legal. We still don’t know who set these traps. There is no boundary from our home that we consider “safe" for trapping. We own country acreage because we want peace and safety. It is our land and we should be able to control who uses it

Shit, I just noticed they wrote THREE years ago... why are they writing in now? Oh well... I wrote in a response. Here's what I wrote, for what it's worth... shit... (I'm feeling a bit under the weather the last few days, needless to say...)

As an active off-leash advocate I read the document "Responsible Pet
Owners, Wildlife and Traps" that the Department of NS Natural
Resources put out this year in response to dog owners', home owners,
and trappers clashing in recent years - and I have to say that I think
it's a good compromise in many respects. It is now SUCH a shame that
dogs are still dying because the new rules haven't been advertised
properly. Rufus - Voice of the People, January 17, 2007 - didn't have
to die. The new Regulations clearly state that yes - "individuals can
hunt and trap on forested land without permission" - BUT - "landowners
have the ability to restrict trapping on their forested land by means
of posting a sign stating that trapping is prohibited without
permission".

So signs on the Kearnes' property would have kept Rufus alive, and the
children safe. I am certainly not saying that hunting, trapping, and
snaring is ever right - but I have the belief that the feet of my
dogs' is the same as my own feet - and they deserve the same rights as
mine, and they also deserve to go where my feet go - and ironically, I
support the document put out by Natural Resources because of that.

Everyone should read the document - it's at
http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/wildlife/doc/PetOwners.pdf