Government trappers are notorious for setting traps and snares illegally and for capturing non-target animals including domestic dogs. In April 2011 I wrote about a dog named Bella who was killed by an M-44-sodium cyanide device placed on the private property of a family in Texas.
Coincidentally, another dog named Bella was also illegally caught in an unmarked snare set by government workers in Idaho but somehow she miraculously survived the horrific ordeal. The lead-in for this previously untold story reads as follows: Stuck for 9-10 hours with a cable choking her neck, foot and torso, Bella chewed off her own foot in a desperate attempt to free herself.
Bella's story as told by her human companion Robert (Bob) Norie is simply an amazing one and is well worth reading. Bella had to be hospitalized for three weeks and lost a back leg. Bob suffered blood poisoning from a bite a deeply suffering and terrorfied Bella inflicted and had to receive hospital care for four days. He and his co-workers were not told that a snare had been set about 1000 feet from their camp.
Some snippets include:
On Thursday, August 19, I awoke about 5:30 am and looked around for Bella. It was just light enough to see that she was not there. I got up and noticed that her food bowl was empty. I got the fire going, had breakfast and worked on maps. Soon Adam and Eric and their dogs were up having breakfast. About 9:00 am I was about ready to start my day's fieldwork. No Bella. I decided to walk down the trail the way we came in.
I walked down the trail through a small clearing. Looking ahead I saw Bella lying in the middle of the trail. I called out her name and saw her try to raise her head. Upon approaching her I could see that she was wrapped up in a wire cable of sorts (the same size cable as that used on bicycle brakes). Blood was everywhere. She had large patches of blood on her haunches, chest and belly and a large blood clot beside her. The snare was around her neck. The cable was anchored to an 8-inch diameter log, then wrapped 7 times around (counted when we removed it) a 5-foot tall tree sapling, and finally the cable was then wrapped around her torso and her right rear leg. This is when I saw that she had no foot. It was almost surreal- no foot on the leg, just bone and tendon and dirt and twigsI ran back to camp. Eric came back with me to Bella while Adam stayed in camp to keep the other dogs away to avoid confusion.
Bella choking with snare around her neck
Back with Bella I knelt down beside her talking to her and reached out to see exactly where the snare was wrapped around her neck and how tight it was. This is when she bit me on my right thumb just above the knuckle. She didn't just bite but held my thumb in a tight grip in her mouth. I had to open her jaws before she released my thumb. I believe she was just so out of it by now that she wasn't even aware it was me. Her bite left two small incisions on my thumb, one mark larger than the other. Blood immediately covered my thumbnail and began dripping. I just wiped it off on my pants leg a couple of times, it eventually stopped bleeding and I forgot about it.
She may have been in this situation for up to 9-10 hours already, it was hard to say. Much of the blood on her body and the pieces of her foot which she had chewed off bit by bit - toes, pads, bone, and hair - were already drying out. It was very apparent that this had not just happened in the last 2-4 hours.
Bella's incident dismissed as "An act of god"
During the following three weeks Bob Norie met with various officials from the Idaho City Ranger District, the US Forest Service, and Wildlife Services. An internal review was conducted by the Forest Service to determine who was at fault. On Sept. 8, 2011 the results of the review became available. The review found no fault with any agency. In fact, the review determined that the incident was 'an act of God' and identified Bob Norie as the responsible party because he brought Bella with him.
An act of God, hmmm. I'm sure you're as incredulous as I am when reading about the government's decision. Please contact your legislators and ask them to support any bills that take away funding from Wildlife Services and/or ban the use of indiscriminate wildlife traps and poisons like M-44s and Compound 1080.
All pictures are from here. The teaser image is of Bella today, happy and healthy but missing a leg.
