Catch and Release Hunting

This little fellow was pole-snared, and released totally unharmed a couple of weeks ago.

The picture is a little fuzzy because I was holding the pole-snare tight with one hand and trying to squeeze off a photo with the other, and this bugger was pretty strong! Don't let those brown eyes fool you -- this guy was tough as hell and eager to do a little damage if he could get hold of me. We parted ways about a minute later, with him scampering off down the hedgerow and me wishing him well for the rest of his already-eventfull day!

One of the great things about terrier work is that you can practice something unique -- catch and release hunting. The ethics here are about the same as catch-and-release fishing in that you help ensure that a well-loved hunting area always remains in balance with a viable population of your quarry species.

As a general rule I try to release raccoon and fox in order to keep the populations of these animals up on my farm permissions. Though fox and raccoons are at record population levels across the country, it is easy to knock a dent in a local farm population if you hunt hard and often. As a general rule, fox and raccoon do very little harm to American agriculture (though they can be hell on free range poultry and hard on some wild bird populations).

I generally terminate most groundhogs, as these animals have a very different level of reproduction and are broadly detested by farmers for the damage they do to crops.


Sailor looks like she's about to fall over asleep in this shot. The white PVC plastic of the pole snare can be seen on the left, along with a bit of the cable.