Checking traps, killing animals quickly and dismantling traps

Checking starts with a plan: a fixed round, always at the same time, with the list of all traps in hand. Many small animals are active at dusk and dawn, so early morning and evening are good times. Each trap is ticked off on the list so that none is missed.

At each trap you first stop a few steps away. That way you do not frighten a caught animal unnecessarily and can calmly assess: is the trap empty, sprung or occupied? Is it a target animal, a pet or a protected species? Is it alive? Only then do you act.

There is a fixed procedure for every outcome: check empty traps, reset or dismantle sprung ones, free non-target animals, recover dead animals and kill live small game quickly and safely. If you know these procedures beforehand, you act more calmly and quickly in the situation – and that shortens suffering.

When releasing, darkness helps: a jacket or cloth over the head and body calms most animals. Then you widen the snare with a stick or cut the cord without bringing your hand near the mouth. Large or well-armed animals such as fox, badger, wild boar or a large dog are not freed by you – keep your distance and call the police.

When killing small game, determination counts. The animal is held still with the jacket or a stick, then a strong, well-aimed blow with a club to the back of the head directly behind the ears follows at once, if necessary a second one immediately. Hesitation or half-hearted blows prolong suffering.

Afterwards you check that the animal is really dead: no breathing, a limp body and no blinking when a grass stem carefully touches the surface of the eye. If you are unsure, repeat the blow. Only then is the animal taken out of the trap.

Trapped animals bite and scratch in panic, even small ones. Gloves and a jacket protect you. Every animal bite needs medical care: rinse the wound thoroughly with water and soap, cover it and get help as soon as possible – emergency number 112, in Austria also 144.

Wild animals can transmit diseases. In Central Europe, for example, tularemia is known in brown hares and can be transmitted by handling and butchering. So: gloves, then wash hands and knife thoroughly, cook meat right through. Animals that look sick, emaciated, injured or unusually tame, or were found already dead, are not eaten.

With deadfalls the rule remains: the hand never goes under the weight. You lift it from the side using a stick as a lever. Even a trap that seems to have gone off can drop again.

These procedures apply to every emergency in which traps have been set – no trap may be set without them. Anyone who is not willing or not able to check daily and kill an animal quickly does not set a trap.

Releasing and reporting also apply in everyday life: anyone who finds someone else's snare or trap with an animal in it frees it only if that can be done without danger, and reports the find to the police. Empty traps are not touched, so that evidence is preserved.

Killing an animal is hard for most people, even in an emergency. That is normal. It helps to make clear to yourself beforehand that a quick, determined procedure spares the animal the most suffering.

Every emergency ends with dismantling: every trap according to the list, deadfalls set off with the stick, sticks and stones scattered, wire, cord and tape taken away and counted. If you could not dismantle everything, tell the rescuers or the police exactly where something is still standing – otherwise a forgotten snare goes on catching animals for years.

The German Animal Welfare Act requires that a vertebrate be killed only with the necessary knowledge and as painlessly as possible. The international humane trapping standards judge traps by how quickly they kill. Both show: even in an emergency, animal welfare is not a side issue.