The unintended trapping of a red fox in a leg hold device on Briscoe Road has captured the public’s imagination and some believe that New Canaan should pass its own law banning the practice, according to a member of the town’s legislative body.
A red fox caught in a ‘leg-hold’ trap on a private Briscoe Road property on the morning of Jan. 13, 2016. Due to a neighbor’s intervention, the animal was set free by the hired trapper. Rosemary DeClue photo, published with her permission.
Town Councilman John Engel at the group’s most recent meeting raised the prospect of taking up the widely discussed matter in public hearings.
“Some people say that this is a state law that says that you can put out [leg hold] traps, but some people say that as a town, maybe we shouldn’t just defer to state law,” Engel said at the group’s Jan. 20 meeting, held at Town Hall. “Maybe we should evaluate and figure out what our policy is. The question is, are we going to evaluate that as a town and have a public hearing and find out what people want, or do we just have too much on our plate this season? I think we at least have to ask ourselves whether we are going to put it on our agenda or not.”
On the morning of Jan. 13, a Briscoe Road woman came upon a red fox that had become ensnared in a leg hold trap on her neighbor’s property that was meant to catch only coyotes (which are then shot in the head). After local police responded—and found that no laws had been broken—state officials contacted the trapper responsible for the device and he moved it away from the property line. (The fox was set free and limped off, according to the eyewitness neighbor who reported it, though it isn’t clear how long it was trapped.)
The head of an area nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation organization has called leg hold traps ineffective and inhumane, and said they often ensnare birds, domestic pets and other non-targeted animals.
In Connecticut, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, padded metal traps are allowed Dec. 1 to Jan. 31 for taking coyotes on parcels of at least 10 contiguous acres (the New Canaan resident who authorized the trapping here has more than 13 contiguous acres), with written permission from the landowner, and all traps must be tended to every 24 hours.
Town Council Vice Chairman Steve Karl, head of the Bylaws and Ordinances Subcommittee, told NewCanaanite.com in an interview after the meeting that the group would take up the matter.
“Once we go down that road and get engaged, it’s a job,” Karl said at the meeting. “I think it’s important that we at least acknowledge that it’s going on, and obviously I don’t know anybody that’s condoning the idea. It’s private property and there are laws to protect that, so it’s kind of a sad thing.”
Separately, New Canaan’s highest elected official received a plea from the Connecticut senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States to consider an ordinance that would ban body-gripping traps in New Canaan and to join an effort to help rid the entire state of them.
The email to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, obtained by NewCanaanite.com, noted that padded leg-hold traps can be as harmful as the steel-jawed version—that padded traps with higher spring force can actually cause more pain to trapped animals— and includes sample language for a local ordinance.
Mallozzi—himself a sometimes bird-hunter (woodcocks, pheasants)—said that he was approached by the Human Society of the United States about banning leg-hold traps in New Canaan following the fox incident, and that he readily would testify in Hartford to that end.
“I was surprised that this was even a form of trapping,” Mallozzi said.
“The thought that there are still these traps, it sounds cruel to me. It just does.”
The Town Code only refers to the practice in a section that prohibits the trapping in public parks (see Section 42-3).
Mallozzi underscored that the Town Council (not first selectman) considers changes to New Canaan’s governing document, though he would make his feelings known as a resident of the town.
“From an emotional, knee-jerk reaction, if we don’t have to use those types of traps then we shouldn’t be using those types of traps,” he said. “The context of my background on this is on a state level. I could see it being applicable in New Canaan’s situation.”
One of those who spoke to Mallozzi about an effort to ban leg-hold trapping in Connecticut is town resident Cathy Kangas, a board member of the Humane Society of the United States.
Asked whether a local, town ban is seen as more feasible than a statewide ban, she said: “In this leg-hold trapping situation, a town obviously can be more nimble. It’s quicker and easier but at the same time we would simultaneously go after the state and ask them to make it statewide as well.”
Kangas said local reaction to the news about leg-hold trapping has been that people here weren’t aware it was legal and find it “outrageous.”
“People are saying it’s horrible, inhumane and cruel, and that they didn’t know before that it existed,” Kangas said.
Agree with Councilman Engel
“Thank you for your compassion” to our First Selectman Robert Mallozi, Councilman John Engel and Vice Chairman Steve Karl for recommending the ban of body-trapping devices here in New Canaan, The Town Next to Heaven. May we live up to our reputation and be a shining example to every community in our state. Mrs. Kangas, as a board member of the Humane Society of the United States , thank you for using your reputation to advance this important cause in our town, on the state and national level. Let’s do this!