Golden eagles die from “snares upon theirs”

Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations

Yesterday we awoke to the news that three golden eagles had been caught in trappers’ snares set in Montana east of the Divide. Two are dead; one requires surgery to remove the cable now embedded in her wing and shoulder. Whoever came upon the bird was carrying cable-cutters (likely the trapper, but this is unknown); that individual cut the cable but provided no assistance to the severely-injured bird. Thankfully, she’s now in the care of the Montana Raptor Conservation Center in Bozeman (visit their Facebook page, which is the source of the accompanying photo).

There is no defense for the use of snares. They are designed for one thing only: to provide animals with a cruel, terrifying, and gruesome death, the wire cable cutting deeper into their bodies as the noose tightens the more they struggle. Often it’s the windpipe that’s crushed or cut; other times, as in the case with this eagle, the snare tightens around bodies, wings, or legs (graphic photo: what a snare does to a coyote; graphic video: a raccoon snared around the body, finished off with bullets). A Minnesota dog survived four days on the run with her mouth wired shut by a snare embedding itself in her flesh (video here) prior to being rescued and rehabbed; other dogs haven’t been as fortunate. And at least one human reports being snared by the foot. Snares are cheap and sold by the dozen…and by the hundred. 

Missouri gov. coyote snaring guide – click image

Because snaring (and all trapping to kill) is indefensible regardless of whether the victim is targeted or incidental, enthusiasts tend to divert blame elsewhere. (We’ve seen the same thing happen in the gun debate. Outlaw guns because they kill people? Then you’d better also outlaw cars.) Check out the comments at the news story that opens this piece and you’ll find an entire school of red herrings on the deadliness of wind turbines, as if this somehow exonerates trapping. But in fact, bird deaths (in general) from turbines are rare when compared to bird deaths caused by collisions with windows, according to Clean Technica. Furthermore, bird-safe wind turbine technology is in the works. So while science and technology evolve to safeguard wildlife, trappers remain firmly rooted in the primitive past, wielding archaic devices of torture to kill for money, for fun, sometimes for food, and to rid their world of “nuisances.”

While wind turbines are indeed responsible for raptor deaths, they aren’t the only threat that eagles must face:

Threats to migrating eagles in the form of power line electrocution, poisoning, shooting, lead contamination due to fragmented rifle bullets in carrion and gut piles, vehicle collisions, habitat degradation and others have been ongoing for many years. Indeed, threats to Golden Eagles have clearly increased and may have reached the point where reproduction is unable to keep up with increasing mortality.
~Raptor View Research Institute

Our human-constructed world constitutes a deadly obstacle course for eagles and, frankly, for most wild animals (coyotes attempting to attend a Cubs game notwithstanding). But snares, unlike wind turbines, have but one express purpose and one desired outcome: the intentional death–cheap and easy–of a living being. That snares are of inherent, barbaric cruelty is of little consequence:

Find a path that you know the animal travels and hang the snare at the height were that animals head will be and make the loop a little bit larger than the intended preys head. When it’s head goes through the loop it will feel the wire, panic, then try to bolt causing the snare to close. The more it fights the tighter it gets and it will eventually strangle itself. This way you don’t have to worry about dealing with an angry and very much alive opossum with its foot in a snare. It also saves you a bullet.  ~Source: “How do snare traps work?” Yahoo! Answers

Addendum: This morning we awoke to news of a mountain lion caught in a wolf trap set just outside the boundary of Glacier National Park. The trap was illegally baited. A park employee, returning to the site later, unintentionally sprang another trap with his foot. News story here.

MAY 2013 UPDATE: THE EAGLE HAS BEEN RELEASED TO THE WILD!!! Visit the Montana Raptor Conservation Center Facebook page for another picture. “…she just kept flying out of sight!” Awesome!