Post by mustelameister on May 21, 2007 13:42:57 GMT -6
S49er: I'll bet if you ask the majority of trappers in wi tomorrow if they want to get their 220's back they would.
I'm sure the fellows who were using #220s unrestricted would love to have that advantage back. Who likes to be told what they've been using successfully is going to be illegal next season?
However, this ain't Kansas. Come to think of it, I've never been to Kansas. So I have no clue as to what the social environment is like there. Not a clue. Maybe folks find their dog dead in a trap, shrug their shoulders, and go buy another one the same day. Not here . . .
We've got five and a half million people living in this state. More and more of them love walking their dogs alongside the road, with those new extendo-leashes that allow their brainless canines to wander to the fenceline. Get it?
I believe most cheeseheads tolerate legal trapping in the form it's in today. There will always be those who oppose any form of animal restrainment, but fortunately they are still a minority here. So for most folks, it's a nonissue. We'd like to keep it that way.
There are two ways the antis can deal with trapping. They can go for it all, and attempt to introduce bills into the legislature banning whatever it is that offends them. This method hasn't been very successful in the past.
Or, they can do it piecemeal, one township at a time, here in Wisconsin. That is no doubt the new arena once the perpetually offended become the majority, living in the "country". And if the trappers living in the area aren't on top of township agendas, they may find themselves traveling several miles before they can lay steel again.
I believe in my heart what has happened to the #220 here will extend the date in which the enclosed #220, and the still-free #160, are banned completely. We worked long and hard on the Conibear Booklet, about to be republished as the BodyGrip Booklet, to give trappers ideas on how to enclose the #220 and still be effective.
If you have access to the reported bodygrip/dog booboos that have occurred since enclosing the #220, you will notice a marked decrease in these conflicts. That's the goal.
Private land, public land, your land, doesn't matter where the dog was killed. It's somebody's dog, dead in a baited #220. To the general public the problem is the trap. Doesn't matter if the dog was trespassing, loose, untrained, trained, purebred, mutt, puppy, old dog, off a leash, on a leash . . . . it's a dead dog caused by a trapper.
As Gary pointed out, a point I've been hammering since #220 incidents began to surface here in Wisconsin, it's not the number of dogs killed in traps, it's going to come down to whose dog was killed. We've put out more than a few fires here in this state that never surfaced in Madison.
If you believe in your heart that retaining the baited bucket #220 is essential to your way of trapping, then you go for it. Defend it to the hilt. Just don't ask me to help fund your crusade. Might as well be squirtin' in the wind.
Truth is, I don't care one bit for losing any tool in the packbasket. I too would love to use #220s unenclosed. But that attitude ain't gonna make it in the 21st century. Not here in Wisconsin anyway.
My boy scout leader, who happened to be my father, encouraged my brother and I to live by the scout motto: "Be Prepared". It's worked for me so far.
So have enclosed #220s, free #160s, and foothold sets.
I'm sure the fellows who were using #220s unrestricted would love to have that advantage back. Who likes to be told what they've been using successfully is going to be illegal next season?
However, this ain't Kansas. Come to think of it, I've never been to Kansas. So I have no clue as to what the social environment is like there. Not a clue. Maybe folks find their dog dead in a trap, shrug their shoulders, and go buy another one the same day. Not here . . .
We've got five and a half million people living in this state. More and more of them love walking their dogs alongside the road, with those new extendo-leashes that allow their brainless canines to wander to the fenceline. Get it?
I believe most cheeseheads tolerate legal trapping in the form it's in today. There will always be those who oppose any form of animal restrainment, but fortunately they are still a minority here. So for most folks, it's a nonissue. We'd like to keep it that way.
There are two ways the antis can deal with trapping. They can go for it all, and attempt to introduce bills into the legislature banning whatever it is that offends them. This method hasn't been very successful in the past.
Or, they can do it piecemeal, one township at a time, here in Wisconsin. That is no doubt the new arena once the perpetually offended become the majority, living in the "country". And if the trappers living in the area aren't on top of township agendas, they may find themselves traveling several miles before they can lay steel again.
I believe in my heart what has happened to the #220 here will extend the date in which the enclosed #220, and the still-free #160, are banned completely. We worked long and hard on the Conibear Booklet, about to be republished as the BodyGrip Booklet, to give trappers ideas on how to enclose the #220 and still be effective.
If you have access to the reported bodygrip/dog booboos that have occurred since enclosing the #220, you will notice a marked decrease in these conflicts. That's the goal.
Private land, public land, your land, doesn't matter where the dog was killed. It's somebody's dog, dead in a baited #220. To the general public the problem is the trap. Doesn't matter if the dog was trespassing, loose, untrained, trained, purebred, mutt, puppy, old dog, off a leash, on a leash . . . . it's a dead dog caused by a trapper.
As Gary pointed out, a point I've been hammering since #220 incidents began to surface here in Wisconsin, it's not the number of dogs killed in traps, it's going to come down to whose dog was killed. We've put out more than a few fires here in this state that never surfaced in Madison.
If you believe in your heart that retaining the baited bucket #220 is essential to your way of trapping, then you go for it. Defend it to the hilt. Just don't ask me to help fund your crusade. Might as well be squirtin' in the wind.
Truth is, I don't care one bit for losing any tool in the packbasket. I too would love to use #220s unenclosed. But that attitude ain't gonna make it in the 21st century. Not here in Wisconsin anyway.
My boy scout leader, who happened to be my father, encouraged my brother and I to live by the scout motto: "Be Prepared". It's worked for me so far.
So have enclosed #220s, free #160s, and foothold sets.