MINOR FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 129 
during the month of May, but as we know from experience, this might be as late as the 
12th of June. The pups are usually about 2 months old before they leave the burrows, 
so the reason for preventing trapping before August 1 is obvious. 
Method of trapping breeding stock.—Our experience this year in purchasing foxes 
which had been caught in steel traps convinces us that this means of capturing animals 
for breeding purposes should be strictly prohibited. In almost every instance the 
foxes brought to us have been so badly injured by broken legs and lacerated flesh 
that a surgical operation has been necessary. In several instances the animals had 
* been in the traps so long—owing, no doubt, to the fact that the trapper had neg- 
lected to go over his trap line for a number of days at a time—that the flesh of the 
injured legs had commenced to decompose before we could have the opportunity of 
giving them proper attention. Aside from the cruelty in this practice, the vitality 
of an animal that has undergone such suffering must have become greatly impaired, 
a thing that should be avoided when the fox is to be depended upon for breeding pur- 
poses. A person who constantly handles these animals soon becomes as attached to 
them as he would to a pet dog; they show many signs of affection when kindly treated, 
and such cruelty as has been exhibited to us naturally becomes repulsive. 
Again, we are firmly of the belief that trapping for live foxes with steel traps is 
most destructive to the species at large. While we have no positive evidence, we 
are reasonably sure that many of the foxes caught in this manner during the past 
season have died, or have been so maimed that they will ultimately die of their 
injuries. In making it known that we were in the market for foxes for stocking our 
ranch, we agreed to take only blacks; so this is the only variety, with the exception 
of a few crosses, that was brought to us. Surely many reds and crosses must have 
been caught, and if we can judge their condition when liberated by that of the foxes 
we bought, they must have been in a sorry plight indeed. One native hunter who 
brought usa single black fox told us that he had trapped no less than 24 reds and 
crosses during the month of August, but had liberated them all; but from another 
native we learned that at least 6 of these foxes were dead when found in the traps, 
and that others were badly crippled when turned loose. Judging from the percentage 
of black, red, and cross fox skins usually collected at Kodiak, and taking into con- 
sideration the number of live black foxes brought to us this year, we think we are 
safe in saying that at least 100 red and cross foxes were either killed or maimed by 
reason of the trapping operations since the close of the last fur season. Our recom- 
mendation is that regulations on this point should be very strict, and we beg to offer 
the following suggestions: 
1. Any regulation governing the method of trapping wild foxes for breeding pur- 
poses should provide that no steel spring traps be used. We have repeatedly advised 
the trappers that the jaws of their steel traps should be wrapped with cloth to pre- 
vent so much injury, but to no avail; so we recommend that the use of steel traps in 
this connection be absolutely abolished. A regulation covering this point should pro- 
vide that only humane methods be used, and no traps that might kill or injure the 
animals should be permitted except during the open fur season. We think that 
some kind of a box trap, made either of wood or metal—such as is used, for instance, 
by many of the blue-fox ranchers for capturing foxes liberated on islands—could be 
effectively contrived so as to answer all purposes. It is probably true that fewer foxes 
would be caught in this ‘manner than with the use of steel traps, still the animals 
would be in far better condition, and for that reason of more value. Then, again, 
during the season recommended for the trapping of live foxes there are a great many 
young animals not so cunning as the mature ones, and these could most likely be 
caught as easily by one method as another. 
2. Persons should not be permitted to trap for live foxes during the period from 
August 1 to December 1 without first securing a license. In order to facilitate the 
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