An Abandonded Trapping Job

raccoon in live trap A question we are often asked is, “How often do you check traps?”

For most nuisance animal species we deal with, the answer is once every calendar day.

That’s because is it ethical to check at least once every day and it is required by law.

Sadly, there are some operators in the industry aren’t as committed to ethics as they should be.

Today we offer a sad story of an abandoned trapping job and offer a reminder of trap checking requirements.

Nuisance Animal Removal Industry Issue

Ryan was recently called to a job that some other nuisance trapper had started.

But even though the homeowner tried repeatedly to get in touch with the person, the nuisance trapper never returned or communicated.

We sincerely hope that some tragedy wasn’t the reason for this job abandonment.

Sadly, this sort of scenario is common enough that we don’t immediately conclude that an abandonded job with no communication is due to unforseen circumstances.

There are fly-by-night outfits entering and exiting the market on a regular basis.

Our advice is buyer beware.

If you are looking for a nuisance animal remover, ask a lot of questions so you can avoid a situation that is shown in the following short video.

Review of Trap Checking Law

In Ohio, Nuisance Wild Animal Controllers need to be licensed and trap checking laws (among others) must be followed.

The law to which we refer is the Ohio Nuisance Wild Animal Control Laws. In the Ohio Administrative Code it is referenced as OAC 1501:31-15-03.

Here is the actual text of the law concerning trap checking:

(C) Monitoring traps, snares or other devices

(1) Traps, snares or any other devices used to take or capture nuisance wild animals may be monitored with an operational electronic device or by personal observation by the person setting the trap or a designated agent. It shall be unlawful for any person to fail to monitor traps, snares or any other device used to take or capture nuisance wild animals, and remove all animals from their traps, snares or other devices once every calendar day, except:

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in trapping muskrats, beaver or river otters under ice to fail to monitor and remove all animals from their traps or snares at least once in every seventy-two hour period.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in trapping muskrats with body gripping traps less than six inches in diameter that are completely submerged in water, to fail to monitor and remove all animals from their traps at least once in every seventy-two hour period.

(c) Traps or other devices used for control of nuisance rats, mice, moles, shrews or voles are exempt from trap monitoring requirements.

Traps Need Checked

As with most rules, you can see there is some flexibility in trap checking, provided the time requirement is met.

Interestingly, if Ryan sets a trap he does not have to check the trap in person every day provided someone else is making a daily check.

So if the homeowner and Ryan come to an agreement where the homeowner will check the traps and text Ryan if something is in it, the requirements have been met. In those instances, the homeowner is the “designated agent” to check traps.

When trap monitoring technology is used, a person doesn’t even have to visually check the traps! How cool is that?

Electronic trap monitoring devices (ETMD) are more recent innovations and though not widely used, meet the law’s requirement.

ETMD systems are mounted to traps and when the doors close, sensors put an alerting system into motion. The alerting systems use cellular and/or gps signals along with apps and programs.

We like to use cellular game cameras to help monitor traps. Alerts and pictures of the traps are sent through cell phones. When we use these, there is visual evidence of an animal in the trap almost as soon as it is in the trap.

Here, Ryan discusses trap checking:

Exceptions to the Rule

Lastly, there are always exceptions. These exceptions, when it comes to nuisance animal laws, are related to species and trapping style.

Traps for muskrats, beaver, and otter trapped under ice only need check every 72 hours. Also, muskrats trapped in under water in body gripping traps also only need checked every 72 hours. These rules acknowledge the fact that these trapping methods are lethal making a trap check for the welfare of the animal moot. As you can see, these are very condition specific.

Traps for rodents like rats, mice, moles, shrews, and voles have no time requirement for trap checking.

We do trap moles so this applies to us. So, after a series of lethal mole traps are set in a yard, we do not check those traps every day as we do with other traps. Moles are trapped underground and giving these traps a little longer to “soak” between checks keeps the sets in good order.