OK, to properly set a cat trap. This is the back of the trap. I'm going to start with the back of the trap. This is locked, nobody is getting out of here. If you have a Tomahawk trap, which is a very good brand of trap, this is the pincher clip, this is the clasp, this goes down. The whole back gate comes off. You have to be extremely careful that when you set this trap as a trapper, and when you pick the trap back up from the vet clinic, you need to make sure that this is properly locked so you don't have any escapees. And, you clip this up, the pincher clip goes over like that. To check it you pull it up like this. We had an old guy transporting a cat trap. He trapped a cat, he picked up the trap, this wasn't locked and guess what happened in the parking lot of the vet clinic? He picked it up like this, the cat got out, he never saw the cat again. His wife was heart broken, I believe they are today, divorced. So, always, always, always make sure that this is up and this clip is locked over that and you always check it. Check it when you set the trap as a trapper and check it when you pick the cat up from the vet clinic. This is the front of the trap. To set this trap you are going to push, pull, there's a hook here, you are going to look for that hook, pull the hook towards you and it sets. There's a little copper band here on this particular trap, this hook is connected to this rod. I'm going to pull out the newspaper for now just to show you this. The rod is connected to what we call the trip plate. You are going to lure the cat all the way into the back of the trap to this trip plate. They are going to step on this trip plate and when they do, they're trapped. You always line the trap with three to four layers of newspaper. I tend to be maniacal so I tape it down so if the wind blows, I've seen cats walk in, get spooked, and back out and they will never go in the trap again. So again, to set the trap, push, pull, look for the hook, put the paper in. And, why do we use paper? They don't like wire, they don't like to walk on the wire, would you? So, to make it more comfortable for them, put it all the way to the back of the trip plate. The paper's also nice because if they pee or poop overnight, it absorbs that. And it's a lot better for them to sit on at least a couple of layers of newspaper than cold wire overnight, so it's a humane thing too. Again, they are going to step on this trip plate, they're trapped. You of course will have remembered to cover the trap when you set it to keep the cat calm. It is not humane to leave a cat out overnight uncovered all night. That's an extremely inhumane thing to do. Keep the cat covered, keep him calm and they'll have a lot less stressful experience and so will you as the trapper.
Sallymae
Dec 17, 2010
