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Tom Venesky: Trappers need to treat animals with respect

The author writes that it doesn't matter what animal you're trapping, when there’s a furbearer you were targeting in a trap, the first rule should be to dispatch it quickly and humanely. (Stock photo)

My first trapping teachers were people I never met, but whose words taught me so much.
In his classic book “Gone for the Day,” Ned Smith’s passages about his experiences trapping red foxes sparked my interest. Later, when I picked up Stanley Hawbaker’s “Trapping North American Furbearers,” I studied and memorized the details of every set description and illustration, looking forward to the day when I could apply them on a line of my own.

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