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Levy
Big Wall climber
So Cal
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 27, 2010 - 08:28pm PT
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I ran into a Bobcat fur trapper Sunday up in the Walker Pass area of the Southern Sierras. I had seen one once last year who told me he had taken 14 Bobcats out of the area just in the last week. He told me there are a lot of Bobcats up in that area. I thought to myself, “Well there were a lot of Bobcats until you showed up.”
This time on Sunday, I parked my vehicle at the spot for a new crag I have been developing with some friends recently. It is next to a huge juniper bush some 30’ across. We put our packs on & started up the trail. My dog Maggie lagged behind and I called for her to no avail so I went back. She was investigating the scent of a cage trap on the back side of the huge juniper bush. She was halfway inside when I shooed her away.
One of my friends threw a rock on the traps trigger and set it off. We laughed that that trap was no longer a threat to Maggie or any other creatures in the area. Later that day from the crag far above, we see a pickup truck approach my vehicle. The driver gets out & circles my vehicle, cups his hands to see through the windows and circles some more. Then he goes to the back of the juniper tree & sees his trap sprung & empty.
Well let me tell you that a pissed off trapper is not someone to mess with. He followed our trail about ¼ of the way up to the crag but it was too far for him(30 minute hike from the car). He returned to his truck & looked with binoculars or a spotting scope & lurked for over 2 hours waiting for us to come back to the car. He left & we resumed climbing but he returned again and waited over an hour again down by the car.
When we returned we found a note that read: (all misspellings are per the note)
**“Your stuff was spared today by someone that is better than you!
Stay in the city where you belong!
Don’t interfer with someone who has a right to use the land as much as you do!
Go home!! The next time maybe not so lucky!!
Karma is a bitch, maybe you will fall from that rock!!”**
This seemed pretty threatening to my friends & I. Am I making too much of a deal over this? I checked the Calif Dept of Fish & Game regulations & Bobcat season begins November 24th thru January 31st. There is no limit to how many Bobcats may be taken by a single trapper. I saw a post on a hunters website that some trapper in Fallon Nevada took 300 bobcats last season legally. This kind of makes me sad.
Thoughts? Please discuss.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 27, 2010 - 08:42pm PT
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Are there regulations as to where traps are permitted? Placing a trap close to a parking area or trail, or anywhere else frequented by humans or domestic animals, doesn't seem very smart, even if it's not illegal.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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Dec 27, 2010 - 08:42pm PT
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Suggest springing all the traps you can, in a low key way.
It's painful but the land managers have a system. Should definitely let them know how you feel.
There is a bobcat in my neighborhood here on the edge of LA. It helps keep my gopher population in check. I prefer them alive and working.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Dec 27, 2010 - 08:58pm PT
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He'd better not mess with my bobcats. I need 'em to keep the vermin down. Plus I just like having them around. Here's a photo of one taken from the kitchen window, taking a little shelter from the sleet and snow, back on the 14th.
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hb81
climber
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:03pm PT
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Karma is a bitch, maybe you will fall from that rock!!”**
Yeah, karma is a bitch indeed, I hope he gets reborn as a rabbit in bobcat territory. What a d*ckhead.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:04pm PT
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You are lucky he didn't slice all of your tires. Happened to my friends vehicle. We came back from a two week backpack trip to find all of his tires sliced up. We had to hike another 16 miles before we ran into someone who gave us a ride. Otherwise we were 35 miles back in the back country. We never did find out what we did that pissed someone off.
Next time you spring traps, do it on the way out. That way you aren't hanging about when they get pissed off.
Talk to the game wardens. Find out why there is no limit.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Full Silos of Iowa
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:21pm PT
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Damn. If indeed there is a right to an unlimited quota on bobcat, then it exists because the populace has been ignorant of this. If an unlimited quota exists, it needs to be changed. Beginning yesterday. That's my value system.
.....
Oh, this vignette also illustrates the potential for conflict, danger, etc. out in the wilds. Another reason I often climb packing my Ruger .380 LCP, sometimes you just never know.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:41pm PT
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Bobcats could kill babies
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Full Silos of Iowa
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:45pm PT
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Crock, perhaps you read too much into a post.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:45pm PT
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Dingos more likely.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:51pm PT
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The trapper might think that Levy has a "purty mouth",...
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:53pm PT
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If there are so many excess bobcats (and wolves, and cougars, and grizzlies, and for all I know tigers) running around, how come I never get to see any? I demand a refund!
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:56pm PT
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Whenever I see something man-made and unattended in The Wilderness, I pick it up and take it with me. Then I deposit it in the dumpster next to where I parked my truck.
If you value something, don't turn your back on it and leave it laying around on Public Land where I can get it.
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nature
climber
Tuscon Again! India! India! Hawaii! LA?!?!
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Dec 27, 2010 - 09:59pm PT
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other than the fact that he (marginally) threatened you with his note, you were probably not in the right on this one.
if you don't like what he's allowed to do try and hit where it counts and get the F&G regs changed.
you can keep setting off his traps (is there a law against that?) and if he responds with violence, well, if you live, then he's in the wrong. but I wouldn't take the approach of instigation. Hayduke was a very very bad man ;-)
Edit: wow... Chaz... my mouth is wide open once again.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Dec 27, 2010 - 10:03pm PT
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Perhaps the trapper should do a better job of concealing his traps.
Around here, if you want to see all kinds of wildlife - as well as NO people - just go a ridge or two over from The Trail.
That's where I'd trap, if I were looking to actually trap something.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Dec 27, 2010 - 10:09pm PT
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Wow Bill this is very dissapointing to hear about. As You know I've been climbing and exploring around that general area for decades. I have seen mountain lions and many bobcats in the wild around the Rincon area and over towards where you guys are climbing.
There have been some problems including an attack on a woman by a lion in the parking lot where Mtn 99 crosses the Kern a few years ago due to overpopulation of cougars vs habitat deprivation (not much habitat deprivation except by fire since it is NFS land.)
Trapping animals is commerce, not sport. It should be seen as such and managed appropriately. For a trapper to set a trap right by the road, at an obvious turnout, where your dog was lucky to survive, should be illegal. For the trapper to leave you threatening notes should bring him serious consequences. If you have the note you have the option of taking legal action through the district court in Lake Isabella.
I'll go up there with you next month. Is it more than 3000 yds from the crags to the car?
(juss' kiddin'...)
KS
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Dec 27, 2010 - 10:13pm PT
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Dig a 10 ft pit near his trap. Camouflage it real good. Place a 6 pack of Coors on top of the trap. Trap that trapper.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 27, 2010 - 10:25pm PT
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I don't endorse a culture that encourages trapping, and I really don't like trapping bobcats.
There are so few of them left in Idaho, that I have only seen two in the wild in my 61 years here.
However, trapping is another part of the ugly-side of western culture.
My "trapping wakeup" this week was arriving home from a day trip to find a pickup with kayaks in the front drive. When I walked in: I discovered a friend, from Boise and his buddy, who were hoping we could do something about two trapped raccoons.
They noticed the leg-hold trapped raccoons while running a Class IV stretch of a nearby stream, and had come to our place in hopes of a rescue. To complicate matters, the trapped raccoons were on the non-road side of a deep and fast stream. It was also getting dark.
Heidi was just finishing up on a call to Idaho Fish & Game, when I walked in. The person she talked to said trapping raccoons was legal, and there was nothing he could do, but he would make inquires and call us back soon.
I received details of where the raccoons were from my friend, and agreed to meet them there, after I heard back from Fish & Game.
A Fish & Game man soon called back, and attempted to tell Heidi that animals really didn’t feel pain like humans might, if they were live-trapped. Heidi politely told him he was full of BS, and asked if there was anything that Fish & Game could do to end the raccoons suffering.
After he mouthed more politi-speak: I asked to talk with him.
I introduced myself, and inquired if I was violating any laws if I shot the trapped raccoons. After he thought about it for a few seconds, he conceded that although I might be in violation: no-one in Idaho would prosecute me for shooting an animal in a leg-hold trap.
So I did.
Sorry, but that was the best end for the raccoons in their situation.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Dec 27, 2010 - 10:30pm PT
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Trapping stinks but those bobcat furs make great masturbation pelts...rj
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