A Hay River family is in mourning after their dog was killed in an abandoned wolf trap last week.
Anne Boden says her two-year-old dog Hank went missing last Tuesday. When he didn’t turn up the following day, the family suspected he may have been killed by a wolf.
But Boden says their fun-loving pet was taken from them in a much more preventable manner.
“On Sunday we happened to be biking with the kids down the old rail line adjacent to our property when our other dog Playful starting barking and growling near a ravine.
“When my husband got closer he realized it was our dog Hank and he had been snared by an abandoned wolf snare.”
Boden says the trap was set within 50 meters of her property and abandoned. The family lives just outside the township on the other side of the junction.
This was the first time Boden had ever seen wolf traps near the property.
“We’ve found rabbit snares in the same area … so we pulled them thinking, ‘okay that’s enough,’ But they’ve since been set up so we pulled them again.
“But the wolf snare, which was on the opposite side, we had no idea. We know that people set them but we hoped people setting them would talk to us first knowing that people live here with pets.”
Hunting season runs from August until May. The snare that caught and killed Hank is believed to be five years old.
Boden wants trappers to be conscious of property lines when they’re setting snares so that tragedies like this can be avoided.
“If you’re setting snares next to people’s property, let them know and if you’re within municipal boundaries, you don’t need to be here unless it’s an emergency.”
