Kickass and the leg-hold trap

Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that it is now a Federal offense to kick a dog, or a cat under terms of the Animal Cruelty Act, but wonders at the abject cruelty toward wild creatures now taking place during the trapping season in Wisconsin and elsewhere.  The use of leg-hold traps in non-killing sets means that thousands of wild animals endure unspeakable pain and misery as they struggle against the steal jaws, sometimes chewing off their own legs to gain freedom.  The keeper knows of this from his boyhood experience of setting traps in Peterson’s swamp, and remembering the scream of a small mink as he, the keeper moved in with a hatchet to put it out of its misery.  Such indifference to the cruelty of the “sport” of trapping is at the heart of its promotion by wildlife agencies across the country, including Wisconsin’s DNR.  The use of leg-hold traps has been outlawed in vast areas of the world.  It needs to be outlawed everywhere.  Now!