Kelowna

Mike Miner wants more signs warning of animal traps in rural areas after having to explain to his young daughter what happened to the family dog.

Miner was out walking in the bush in the Joe Rich area near Philpott Road over the weekend with his two daughters and two dogs.

One of the dogs, a six-year-old German Shepherd mix named Sasha, got ahead of them and wound up getting caught in a trapper's metal animal trap.

“I heard a snap in the bush. I went over to see what the noise was and there was my dog with a trap over her head. I couldn't get the trap off, there was nothing I could do. I was trying my hardest to get the trap off her head, but I couldn't. I just held her until she died, then I had to leave her there because I had my two daughters with me,” says Miner.

He says the trap was set between 10 and 15 feet off the road and he is horrified to think what the outcome could have been if one of his daughters had been in that spot instead of his dog.

“Anyone could have walked up there. We've gone up there to get Christmas trees with the kids. If my four and a half year old had run in there, she would have been snapped up.”

Miner says the local conservation officer came up and helped him pry the trap off Sasha.

“I've since learned this is a trap line and this is legal. You can put the trap as close to the road as you want. It's for trappers who don't want to get out of their car, they can just look from the road and see if there is an animal in their trap.”

He says the area has signs warning of active logging, but none warning about active trapping lines.

“I would like to see something, move it off the road, further into the bush. I don't mind them trapping, I don't agree with it, but it is what it is, but just put it a little further off the road so the next time it happens it isn't a kid. My four and a half year old just thinks there are bullies up there and wants to know why the bullies are laying traps, so we have to explain to her, this is part of our system. These traps can be anywhere on Crown Land.”