Trapping: What It Is and What It Isn't

Author: Greg Staggs

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A bobcat calmly stares the author down. Staggs says coyotes often cower or attempt to run away when approached, while most cats would like nothing more than to rip you to shreds.

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I’m a trapper. Let me clarify: I’m a HARD-CORE trapper. For many, that elicits a wide range of emotions right off the bat. There isn’t hardly an outdoor activity as misunderstood as trapping. Many people have very preconceived notions of what trapping is – and what it isn’t.

Largely, that’s due to one of two things: First, let’s be brutally honest – trapping is a dying art. There’s almost nothing in the outdoor spectrum that takes as much work, as much attention to detail, and as much unmitigated discipline as trapping does. Let’s face it; in today’s “microwave society”, we outdoorsmen like success to come quickly – and easily. It’s one of the reasons food plots are a multi-million dollar industry in the world of deer hunting; it sure is a whole lot easier to sit in an elegant box blind overlooking a lush green field as opposed to diving in to the undergrowth and emerging with briar cuts across your face and cheeks. Trapping puts you on the ANIMAL’s terms more than anything else out there – not yours.

Secondly, it’s been the easiest for animal-rights activists and PETA-type wackos to attack thus far. Because the numbers of actual trappers are dwindling, there’s more and more people in our country who are truly ignorant of both the skillset it takes to catch a target animal, and what actually happens when you do. That makes it very easy to misconstrue the truth and spread false propaganda. In other words, it makes it very easy to spread lies about trapping. Ever heard the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know? Or even better, as the great Will Rogers said: “It’s not what we don’t know that hurts. It’s what we know that ain’t so.”

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