Snare Season

[Blaithin]

Guys who do that are the worst thing for landowner relations and trust. Even if there was no law, you need to be upfront in this day and age. Ethical trappers would not set up so close imho. I would not be impressed if it happened to me.

I wasn’t terribly impressed at the time. But he’s contacted me both years since so I can’t complain.

To toss in the face of your dominant coyote theory disbelief 😜 I had no coyote issues here for probably the first 6 years I lived here. Then they found my chickens.... They were using their decoy ploy to take my one LGD out one direction while another robbed the chickens. They’d come right up to my doorstep and fight him. I seen at least 4 one night and could’ve kicked them they were so close. They were taking birds right out of the barn. Timing aligned and I got a second LGD but it was still a fight. The dogs would have puppies pinned against the fence (the entire acreage is page wire so only certain holes to go through) and regularly had war wounds. The adults were still constantly trying to do the decoy lure trick and any time the dogs were caught napping a bird would disappear.

Then the snare winter happened.

I haven’t had a coyote in the yard since. I’m assuming he cleared out the ones that knew about the easy food source and were determined to take advantage of it, no matter the dogs. The current ones haven’t found anything to make it worth trying to get through the dogs for. They’re happy just walking by the acreage. Deterring them from finding food is much easier than deterring them from food they know is there.

I don’t necessarily consider it a dominant animal thing, just the adults aren’t teaching the puppies about my chickens. What they don’t know they can easily get, they don’t put much effort in for.

Now the downfall of baited snares is if my dogs are down there, they also aren’t up at the yard keeping the coyotes out 😂

[shtferbrains]

If I had sheep I agree, zero tolerance for coyote.
Same if you have sick calves laying around.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Good luck getting further than a half mile from any yard site around here, even a quarter mile would be tough.

[Blaithin]

I mentioned in burnt’s thread how I prefer to deal with coyotes and have found success doing so.

I’ve shot them right out the front door when they were bad. The snares seem to have taken the rest of the problem ones.

Now I’m back to simply being able to have dogs, go out and make noise myself, have the radio on... preventative maintenance sort of stuff.

Pretty sure I said on that thread that killing to prevent predation was one tool and one that I consider to be more of a last resort. The guy snaring here is not doing it to prevent or lower predation. He’s a city guy that comes out of Calgary to earn some extra dough on pelts.

For the most part I can trace all my predator issues down to years and times of the year. Hawks are issues when they have chicks in the nest, owls are an issue in winters when the snow is so deep they have trouble hunting, coyotes were issues when the crop was at peak and was good cover for them to sneak up to the acreage. Learn the predators and it helps you predict when they will make appearances and how you can try and avoid them.

Except magpies. Those are just right bastards. Get rid of one and it’s like five magically appear out of its feathers.

[Horse]

I dont know when the law changed but about 30 yr ago when I trapped only registered trappers were allowed to use snares,and only in the green area (aka crown land). Resident trappers ,those in settled areas (aka the white areas) were not allowed to use them,other than beaver and then the entire loop had to be submersed. Thats in Alta

[Blaithin]

I dont know when the law changed but about 30 yr ago when I trapped only registered trappers were allowed to use snares,and only in the green area (aka crown land). Resident trappers ,those in settled areas (aka the white areas) were not allowed to use them,other than beaver and then the entire loop had to be submersed. Thats in Alta

You’re supposed to have a license, take the course, to my understanding anyway. Can’t just go out and snare. Not sure how much it’s enforced though. I called Fish and Game when this originally happened because it’s county lease land and the guy on the lease had just passed away and his wife had no idea about any trapping. In no way was F&G even interested in coming out and chatting with the guy. He just told me the 70yr old widow was lying to me and he wasn’t going to drive out from Olds to see otherwise. For all I know the trapper has no license. Although he probably needs one to sell properly?

Either way it gave me absolutely no faith in F&G. Surprise surprise.

[Horse]

Yup $400 3 day course to be able to get licence now probably like boating licence so you know about ocean going vessels and bouys,real important on the prairies.

[Oliver88]

Good luck getting further than a half mile from any yard site around here, even a quarter mile would be tough.

Sounds like Saskatchewan in the 1920’s. Now there are a lot of abandoned farmyards that are farmed around until they get cleared off.

[Sheepwheat]

Sounds like Saskatchewan in the 1920’s. Now there are a lot of abandoned farmyards that are farmed around until they get cleared off.

Yeah if I didn’t have paradise as my backyard, it would be difficult to find snare sites more than a mile from a yard.

[Dr Tone]

When wolves come to your yard and kill your dog as well as a couple other neighbors dogs, if someone’s dogs is running around near snares they are in much bigger danger in our area.