Gin Traps Must be Banned in New Zealand

A gin trap is used to describe a mechanical trap designed to catch an animal (or a human!) by the leg using spring operated jaws having either a serrated edge or teeth. The word 'gin' is believed to have been derived from the french word 'engin', meaning engine or a mechanical device, and the name 'gin trap' came into being to describe any active spring powered trap as opposed to the passive types such as pitfall traps and nooses.

These traps are legal in New Zealand, and way beyond the issue if these should be legal or not, is the consequence of what they are doing to animals they were never designed to trap.  A steel jaw leg trap causes a significant degree of trauma to the animals caught in them, and this trauma is very likely to to be of a type that will result in severe pain for those animals. Further, it is very likely that the trauma, and the resulting severe pain, will increase as the animal attempts to escape from the trap. Exhaustion and dehydration will eventually set in. This situation will generally be borne by the animal for a considerable period of time, up to 24 hours, before the trap is checked and the animal killed or released.

For those animals mistakenly caught in steel jaw leg hold traps, having suffered severe pain and psychological distress for many hours, they are on their release likely to suffer further pain and distress because of the physical damage done to them, and they may eventually die. For those animals that manage to free themselves, there is the prospect of their injuries resulting in their eventual and painful death.

The RSPCA (Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)  wants these traps banned by City Councils here within a 1 km radius of human settlement. Why ? Because these traps are trapping pets ! It also wants the Minister of Agriculture to ban these altogether on the advice of his National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, who are very concerned at the delay in this issue been taken care of.

Earlier this year, two Greymouth cats were caught in gin traps. One cat managed to crawl home with the trap still attached, but the other only escaped by gnawing off its own paw, the second cat was euthanased to prevent further suffering. This is not an isolated case, but one I mentioned.

These traps MUST go ! Please sign this petition for banning traps entirely, and if not that for keeping them away from our homes ! Much of New Zealand is close to bushland, no animal should suffer from these traps, but to think our beloved cats and dogs do, is beyond comprehension.