Most don't give a damn. And good luck with a warden doing anything about. Perhaps, but probably not.

Definitely some good wardens out there that would do something. Problem is proving who actually owns/set the trap and how long the animal was actually there. Sadly people that display this type of behavior rarely leave their business card.

I would expect the OP is knowledgeable enough to tell it an animal has suffered dehydration and/or starvation or they wouldn't have made that claim.

I'm in the process of procuring a couple traps this week to catch a fox that has decimated my chicken population from 15 to 6 in the last 2 weeks. I'm so pissed at him right now I can't say I'd feel too bad if he had to sit there a few extra hours. Good thing for him is I'll be checking and covering the traps each morning as I don't want to accidentally catch my dogs/cats or any other animals in the traps. If I'm lucky enough to catch him, I'll get to dispatch him first thing in the morning before I head to work.

I've shot plenty of coyotes over the years but have let the handful of foxes I've seen live as they are such cool animals. Going forward, I'll be dispatching everyone I can around my property. I've spent too much time and money on a bunch of stupid birds to put up with a fox setting my egg production back 6 months every time one finds my coop.

Knowledge does not necessarily equal experience especially when it comes to trapping! I don't know the OP or his experience which is why I have the explanation in the comment the way I did.

I'm completely against trapping but I'm especially against those that don't do it ethically. Some people are just miserable humans.

I have a beautiful coyote that is very red in color that has been frequenting my yard a few times a week. About 7am, my guineas start raising hell and I know he and his buddy have arrived. Doesn't take much to shoe them off. They were in my yard early one morning like at 3am going crazy. I enjoy them myself. I have a 30 chickens so I know why they are there. The guineas are amazing at running the chores off. It's pretty impressive. Foxes and coyotes aren't shot. I let them be. As for traps or fishing gear, anything I locate on or about our ranch along the creeks are removed and kept. I don't tolerate that *****

I know it could never happen, but it would clear out a lot of riff-raff if people had to process an animal before getting a hunting license renewed the first time. The butcher would still get paid, but the hunter would have to be hands-on.

I see the coyotes all the time here in Kingwood. My favorite one was on a hike near Cloudcroft several years ago. I came across a solitary one trotting along on a ridge. He just sized me up, like he was giving me an IQ test and welcoming me to the neighborhood. Torturing a creature like that is psychotic.

I'm not anti trapping. And I have made part of my living as a biologist managing predators in my own ranch and others. Few commercial or gov. trappers I've known give much reference to the animals.

Gunny456 said:

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I'm not anti trapping. And I have made part of my living as a biologist managing predators in my own ranch and others. Few commercial or gov. trappers I've known give much reference to the animals.

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I've had the exact opposite experience with both govt and private trappers alike.

The issue is every trapper I've dealt with as a wildlife biologist have zero understanding about the balance needed for a healthy ecosystem. Most want to totally eradicate the Apex predators and Mesopredators. All you have to do is look at historical data to confirm that.
They have no data of population numbers in the area they work in. Every single commercial trapper and gov trapper I've met will say that the game departments have the population numbers all wrong….and there are a lot more animals than reported.
As Brazos said. I'm not against trapping but i personally am not going to leave an animal in horrible pain for 9-10 hours. To each his own.

Ran traps as a kid up north. Bought my guns, shells, motorcycle, etc, etc. $500 a winter in the late 70s ($2,000 now). We actually checked traps in the mornings and set them in the late afternoon much of the time. Coons and fox.

Not a huge fan of trapping either here, though I do set coon traps occasionally at my deer feeders when the herd gets so big it is regularly in the double digits. We get a handful if we are lucky, but the bigger benefit is that it seems to keep them away for a little while before they start trickling back in.

Set them at night, check in the morning is the rule.

Gunny456 said:

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Why don't you fix your chicken yard/coop to not let them in.

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This was my first thought as well. Today it's a fox, next month it's a skunk, a raccoon in July, etc.