AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – After a recent incident involving a fox and an animal leg hold trap, wildlife experts are stressing humane ways to trap animals.

Animal leg traps are still legal in the State of Texas and wildlife experts are deeming them inhumane and barbaric.

“There are better traps to use, there’s live catch traps. You catch them live, unharmed and could do something with them,” said Dr. Janice Wolf, veterinarian at Canyon Road Animal Hospital.

A gray fox trying to escape a leg hold trap was taken in by Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center then transferred to Canyon Road Animal Hospital for care.

To escape the trap, animals like this fox will often bite their own leg off. The fox underwent surgery to to amputate the leg because of blood loss.

“It maims them, it’s a long suffering, it’s very very painful. It can get infected and that’s on top of already having to lose a leg. So I mean this needs to be banned in Texas. It’s banned in several other states and we’re really gonna work with other rehab centers to get these banned,” said Stephanie Brady, founder and executive director of Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

The fox died shortly after surgery, but both Dr. Wolf and Brady want this to bring awareness to the use of inhumane animal traps.

“I would definitely deem them barbaric and inhumane and like I said we have trappers that always tell us all the time, ‘Well if you do it right, it shouldn’t.’ No, there is nothing you can tell me that’s going to convince me that this is okay to use on an animal, nothing,” said Brady.

Copyright 2023 KFDA. All rights reserved.