great weekend rabbit hunt despite almost lossing a dog

[wilson king]

me and 2 other hunting buddies and 3 dogs had a great time off tch  by witburn was too warm and windy most of the day. we had lots of starts and bagrd 6 rabbits despite the pour senting conditions . thr hunt was cut short aroud 3pm.  the three dogs were hot on a hare the took the dogs on a far run. when gorge noticed what he thought was one of the dogs was on a soul hunt and said he would head up to the othr dog and try and bag that rabbit. while me and ed waited for this one to circle a round. just as ed fired and baged this small hare his cellphone rings. ed explains to me that it was gorge and said thunder the older of the 3 dogs was caught up in a coyote snare and he could not get it out from around his neck and was choking and had no side cutters. ed told gorge to fire of 2 shots so we coul point out is loaction. we quickey raced up to thunder and gorge by tthe time we  got there he had managed tos lip the snare from around is neck. the dog was just laying there motionless but stil breathing  after about 20 minute the dog started to retun to normal. ed commented it was a good thing in was not dasey which is 2  or laddy lady witch is 11 mouths which are much more lively dogs. thunder in 10 years old and a great jump\start dog but nut much energy  left in him ed said. for any one thats snaring coyotes i think tht they should be using signs staing so i that erea if we new the snars were there would would not are ran our dogs that day in this loaction. also to any one runing dogs we thunk its a good idea to have a pare of side cuters in everyones bag.

[David]

I really hate to hear about this stuff, it cant be that hard for a trapper to post a couple signs on the trails or road leading to a location that they have coyote/fox traps in the area. If signs were posted i think you would find that alot less of these snares/traps would be pulled by people hunting with rabbit dogs. The problem is not just for beagles either, I take my lab in the woods on a regular basis and let her run around, I sure would appreciate a person taking 2 min to post a sign warning me about fox/coyote snares.

[Cathy Stamp]

I heard of someone in the Pouch Cove area who lost his dog in a coyote snare he could not loosen the wire.  I now keep a pair of plyers in my Knapsack.  All you need is for the gov. to pass a law stating that you have to flag the area where you are trapping/snaring.  It is practised on the mainland.