Skip to content

Update: Langley's Critter Care treating raccoons caught in leg traps

A pair of raccoons were found in a Vancouver Park with leg-hold traps snapped onto their paws and legs. Another raccoon didn't survive.
7826langley1116-InjuredfemaleRaccoon
This female raccoon was found with a leg-hold trap on her paw in a park in Vancouver. A pair of raccoons are now being cared for at Langley's Critter Care rehabilitation centre.

Critter Care Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre is currently caring for two raccoons that were caught in leg-hold traps set in a popular Vancouver park earlier this week.

A third raccoon from a different area of Vancouver was brought in with a trap on it. Critter Care founder Gail Martin confirmed that the animal had to be put down because the injuries were so bad.

"It's been a horrible year for leg-hold traps," said Martin.

The young female and the older male raccoon were brought into Critter Care on Tuesday with injuries to their feet. The male had a trap on his front paw and one on his back leg, said Critter Care's Angela Fontana, senior animal care supervisor.

"His back leg has a nasty, deep wound."

Both were sedated and had X-rays done to determine if there were broken bones.

"This guy suffered a broken toe on his hind foot, is missing quite a few teeth from trying to get the traps off. Both of his front paws are also swollen and bruised. We believe the front left paw was caught in a second trap," said Fontana.

Luckily  the female has no broken bones.

"But it will take a long time for her rear paw to heal from the wound caused by the trap."

The female will make a full recovery and will be re-released back to the wild. The male's condition isn't known yet.

It's believed the traps were intentionally set near Dunbar Park on Vancouver's West Side, a popular family park where kids could have also found the traps.

It's against the law in B.C. for leg-hold traps to be placed within 200 metres of a residential area.

Fontana said in her nine years at Critter Care she has seen an 'alarming increase' in leg hold traps. Not so much in Langley, but in other communities.

"There are more humane ways to deal with raccoons.

To see updates on the raccoons, go to the Critter Care Facebook page.

 

PICTURE BELOW: This is one of the traps removed from the paw of the Vancouver raccoon now being cared for at Langley's Critter Care.



Monique Tamminga

About the Author: Monique Tamminga

Monique brings 20 years of award-winning journalism experience to the role of editor at the Penticton Western News. Of those years, 17 were spent working as a senior reporter and acting editor with the Langley Advance Times.
Read more