URGENT: Demand That El Paso County Officials Not Use Cruel Traps to Capture Dogs

PETA has learned that officials in El Paso County, Colorado, have allocated thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund a heartless arrangement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a misguided effort to rid the community of homeless and roaming dogs. The county plans to have the USDA set leghold and snare traps—torturous devices that maim and kill animals—in various locations throughout the community.

Even with "padding," the steel jaws of leghold traps powerfully grip animals, and they don't always get animals by the legs. The traps often clamp down on sensitive parts of animals' bodies, such as their feet, heads, eyes, muzzles, and abdomens. So-called "padded" leghold traps offer nothing more than a thin strip of synthetic material between the steel jaws and the animals' limbs, and padding does not reduce the terror and pain that animals endure when the traps clamp down on them.

Snare traps encircle animals' necks or bodies with wire. As a trapped animal struggles to escape, the loop tightens and slowly strangles the animal. The use of these medieval torture devices cannot be justified under any circumstances. No animal—wild or domestic—should be made to suffer and potentially die in these horrible traps when humane alternatives are widely used and commercially available. Animals can be easily and humanely captured with live traps.

Humane box traps—which are commonly used by animal care and control agencies to capture unsocialized and frightened animals—can be used to capture dogs who cannot be caught with a treat and a leash, an age old method that hasn't even been tried in this case. In addition, El Paso County has an existing contractual agreement with a local humane society that provides animal control services in other areas of the county, and the group's doors are always open to animals in need. But instead, El Paso County has contracted the USDA to torturously trap and cruelly kill homeless dogs.

Please contact all the county commissioners today by mail, phone, and fax, and demand that this plan be stopped:

Please send polite comments to:

Office of El Paso County Commissioners
27 E. Vermijo Ave.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903-2208
719-520-7276
719-520-6397 (fax)

The Honorable Wayne Williams
Commissioner of District 1

The Honorable Amy Lathen
Commissioner of District 2

The Honorable Sallie Clark
Commissioner of District 3

The Honorable Dennis Hisey
Commissioner of District 4

The Honorable Jim Bensberg
Commissioner of District 5