Snare Season

[Blaithin]

This isn’t really anything I ever thought much about or knew dates of before a couple years ago. Then my dogs found a snare site.

Luckily they’re not as dumb as they pretend, and apparently their periodic time outs on the chain have them trained well enough to sit and wait. Either way, despite being caught multiple times (ok the one isn’t THAT smart), I was lucky to not lose them. The guy took my number and very nicely let’s me know every year when he puts the snares in and pulls them out.

Well I got the call this week so now the dogs are on lockdown. Usually at least one tied up at all times. Not their favourite time of year but it’s better than the preference. And yeah, dogs are supposed to be kept at home but they’re farm dogs, who ever really has a fenced yard for their farm dogs. One day maybe, but until then they do the rotating tie up during snare season.

Once you know when snare season is though, you start to notice how many people post missing rural dogs this time of year. So consider this the PSA of the month. Watch out for wandering dogs! The snare site in question is across a quarter so over half a mile away but that’s not that far for a dogs nose sniffing out the bait.

[Oliver88]

This sounds too close to be setting up snares. Any reasonable person would find a location further from a farm yard.

[Blaithin]

This sounds too close to be setting up snares. Any reasonable person would find a location further from a farm yard.

How far?

Can easily hit a farm here every mile as the crow flies, usually less. And there’s no regulation that I know of stating they have to be a certain distance from yards.

Technically it’s the dog owners responsibility to keep dogs on property. Even in the country they aren’t supposed to be roaming free. If we were to get technical I’m the one in the wrong 99% of the year. My dogs should be secured on my property.

[shtferbrains]

We had an old dog that went missing for a couple of days.
Wife phoned the trappers we know who knew nothing about it but the old boy shows up the next day with a ring of hair gone off his neck.
Might have been on old snare I set 50 yrs ago. Who knows.

[Sheepwheat]

I snare every year. You HAVE TO tell anyone within a mile of a snare site that you are setting up. I personally just avoid being that close to anyone. I have never caught a dog. I have had brief knots in my stomach nearing a snare site before though, when I have seen wolf tracks on occasion, which before taking a closer look I thought were dogs. Thankfully. But where I snare, if I caught a dog, it would be a very lost doggie. In Saskatchewan, power snares are the only snare type allowed, and they are LETHAL. Nothing is going to get free. There is no sitting and waiting for your owner, because it’s over once you trigger the spring to release.

My land backs on to a roadless region. We also get lots of snow, so the chance of a dog going more than ten feet out of its yard is low, unless it’s on a road, and I don’t snare anywhere near roads.

[beaverdam]

sheep, is this what you call a power snare?

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/61307/ram-snares-coyotebeaver

Does a person need a trapping license to purchase?

[beaverdam]

sorry, I'll try again.

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/61307/ram-snares-coyotebeaver https://www.cabelas.ca/product/61307/ram-snares-coyotebeaver

[Blaithin]

In Alberta they’re encouraged to tell local homesites to foster good “community relations” but they don’t have too.

For all I know this guy has been snaring down there the entire time I’ve lived here and the dogs only found it a couple years ago. They usually go west behind the yard, not east.

Hardly the only example of Alberta having dumb laws. I actually had to leave a sticky note with my number on it at the site to get ahold of the guy. No other way to find out who it was.

[Sheepwheat]

sorry, I'll try again.

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/61307/ram-snares-coyotebeaver https://www.cabelas.ca/product/61307/ram-snares-coyotebeaver

Yup that’s it. But cabelas is about twice the price they are elsewhere. In sask you need a snaring permit to be able to purchase initially. You do not need a trapping license to snare, only to sell the fur.

Been doing real well with coyote furs, most are from 120 to up to 240 bucks a pelt. My average last year was a bit over 150 bucks. It is a pretty good side venture if so inclined, lots of work, lots of learning.

It is still so odd to me to set up a snare, with that big steel spring, look at it, and know a coyote will walk; brush right up against it and get caught. It seems impossible, for an animal that will avoid an invisible foothold trap like the plague.

Having sheep of course I get the control aspect as well. I don’t buy the theories that some have that if your dominant coyotes aren’t lamb killers they won’t let others onto their territory, so you won’t lose lambs. When you catch 40 coyotes at the exact same location, you start to realize how many there are around, and you recognize that the dominant theory doesn’t hold much water. Any coyote worth its salt, would look at lambs and their mouth would water. They are a predator for crying out loud.

Guard dogs help. Dead coyotes are better, at least thin them out a bit to delay the inevitable, you’ll never get rid of them ever. As long as coyote pelts are wanted, it is hard to pass up the easy income. At least it’s easy income if you are crazy like me and enjoy being out in the cold and enjoy pelting and working with fur to make it shine. Lol

And if you’ve ever walked out to feed the sheep, and find dead lambs strewn about, you will do anything you can to avoid that picture, for as long as you live.

[Sheepwheat]

In Alberta they’re encouraged to tell local homesites to foster good “community relations” but they don’t have too.

For all I know this guy has been snaring down there the entire time I’ve lived here and the dogs only found it a couple years ago. They usually go west behind the yard, not east.

Hardly the only example of Alberta having dumb laws. I actually had to leave a sticky note with my number on it at the site to get ahold of the guy. No other way to find out who it was.

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.

[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