Not from my unit, but my homebrews helped me find the cats!

Pictures removed by PaPaBob.

looks like that kitty might be in a ill mood, better approach with CAUTION.

nice pics, what do you finish them off with. that would send chills down my spine walking up to one in a trap and him hissing and stuff like that. do you sale the hides? how much are they worth if you do?

Cool close ups. He does look a bit angry, doesn't he?

"Be vewwy, vewwy Cawfo!"
----Elmer Fudd----

cannon. What do you do with them after you catch them?

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Nice cat. Where abouts in Wv are you from?

Great Closeups!!!!

Great pics............too bad it wasn't a yote in the trap though

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i want one mounted too but i can't bring myself to kill one.

Great pictures and done very well with good taste.

I remember when I was a young kid, about 10- years old, and went to check my brothers bobcat trap. I saw something in the trap, but it was hard to see and I thought it was a raccoon so I just went up and kicked it in the side.

It was a 35# bobcat and it came at me trying to bite my leg off. Forgot that my bro had a 12 foot chain on the trap and wrapped to a tree that was behind me. I blasted it right in the head with a 30-30.

Boy was he mad, he was going to make a rug out of it, but the shot never hurt the hide any for a rug.

Cliff


Wow, those shots are spectacular shots! Man relaly really nice. Quality! Wow, Ok i'm done bragging, those are awesome.

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Cannonball,

When I saw the pictures of this Bobcat I knew right away it was in a high stress position. Yes, the photo is clear and the color is great but the look on that Bobcat's face turns my stomach.

This is the stuff that animal rights activists love to find on the Web and use against hunters and trappers. As someone who enjoys reading and posting on this site I'd recommend that any photos posted of live animals are done with great respect to the animal photographed. I completely support your choice to trap but I'd rather not see an animal in distress photographed and posted on this site.

I've been bowhunting since 1976 and every year I have more and more respect for the animals I hunt. I've helped many youth with vegetarian/nonhunting parents get involved in hunting because of the respect I pass on to these youth. If I showed one of these vegetarian parents the photo of this bobcat their would be no opportunity to work with one of their children.

I challenge all of us post photos and text that show respect for the wildlife we enjoy hunting and photographing. If we don't, the animal rights folks will have the last laugh.

My three cents,

Talor CTY- Not to far from my family. I have family in Bridgeport & Fairmont and the old family farm is in Lewis Cty. Nice Kitty!!

Cats can be tough to trap. My buddy had a few traps behind my place this winter and came up empty. Lots of tracks but they were not falling for the "peek in the bucket trap" trick. He was using some 5 gallon bucket trap thing-a-ma-jigs that kill the kitty on the spot.

Congrats on the cat.

This forum is as stated Pictures and Videos from your Units. I missed this one when it first was posted and now that I see that it is a trapped animal feel it doesn't have a place here at all. I certainly have no problem with trapping and harvesting of predators. That's great and I wish I had them in this area for me to participate. But, the display of cats or coyotes in a trap doesn't belong in this forum IMO.

Like David stated above we must have respect for the animals we hunt and harvest. For this reason I am removing the pictures. The discussion of this action can continue if you all wish.

Cannonball, I don't want you to have hardfeelings over this but it is a standard we would like to maintain in this forum. Live animals in their natural habitat.

I don't totaly agree with the decision and I don't see anything wrong with the photos. I felt I did them in very good taste, But its not my forum and Im sorry I turned some of your stomachs. No hard feelings.

Hello Cannonball,

For a trapped animal, yes the cropping was in good taste. But if you look at the countenance on the cat's face it's obvious that the cat is in a lot of pain and highly stressed. This expression is backed up by the text you provided.

Do the photos and text demonstrate respect for the Bobcat as a wild animal? I don't believe they do. That's my position.

Would anyone who accesses this public site (hunter, trapper, or non-hunter/trapper) get a sense that you have a deep respect for this particular animal? If I was helping our daughter on a school project that focused on Bobcats, I'd be hard pressed to convince an eight year old that there was anything that resembled "respect" in this thread for that Bobcat.

I encourage you to put yourself in the shoes of anyone who read this thread and try to get a sense of the response from that individual.

The non-hunting public (by far the majority) doesn't need our help to squash our priviledge to hunt or trap.

Thanks for listening,

I think you may have taken my comments out of context which is an easy thing to do on internet forum. I have a ton of respect for animals and especially this one in particular. I will take you advice and look at things from other peoples perspective in the future. But I still don't feel Im totaly wrong in this case. I feel these cats are beautiful creatures and that is what I was trying to show. You are the first person in how many to view this thread that was offended by this?

Cannonball,

Thanks for your reply. I respect your position. If your original post was limited to an audience of trappers and hunters there would be less cause for concern. However, I know of several individuals who check this site because of an interest in trail cameras. These folks aren't hunters or trappers and I know they'd be offended. Not everyone who views a thread is going to add a reply. In fact, the majority of people who view a thread never add to the thread. We have no idea what the response is from those individuals.

I may be the first one in this thread to actively share my disdain for the Bobcat photos of a lathered up kitten in a very stressed out state but it's likely there are others who may have been offended and would never post.

I share this site with my wife and daughter all the time. I know they would have gone off the deep end reading your thread...and they spend a lot of time in the field hunting with me.

I personally find it disrespectful to share a picture of a Bobcat kitten all lathered up from a struggle to free itself from your trap. Who knows if my position is shared by others who posted. I haven't read any flames yet from others regarding my feedback.

Thanks again,

Thats cool I understand what you are getting at. The only thing Im going to comment on is on your comments about sharing a picture of a Bobcat kitten all lathered up from a struggle to free itself from my trap is way way way off base. The animal was wet because it was raining out, the ground around the trap area was not even broken up, trampled up or muddy from a struggle. If she would of struggled at all she would of gone free because the trap only had her by one pad on the very bottom of the foot. Thirdly she was a 17 pound female. Not exactly a Bobcat kitten. I would show you after pics in reference to me but im sure that isn't appropiate for this forum either.

I thought the pictures were great and done in good taste.

If you have ever seen a bobcat in a foothold trap, you would realize they are not in much pain at all, stresssed maybe, but not in pain. Thats why they are called foothold traps, they hoold them till you get there.

To each his own I guess.

That was one other point that I meant to say but forgot in all my rambling. I do agree with CObowhunter that the trapped cat was possibly stressed, but certainly not in pain. I think if you can see that in the pictures you were looking into them to far. Traps are designed to merly hold the animal not hurt. These days traps are designed with what they call laminated and off set jaws. This is to put less pressure on the animals leg with a wider contact area and to continue blood flow to the foot.
Im going to check my cam sometime soon. Its in a awesome location and I should have to great pics to share!

Hello Cannonball,

I stand corrected on the reason for the wet fur. I assumed a 17 pound Bobcat would be a kitten. I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on your pictures.

Although I still don't feel a photo of a trapped animal belongs on this site. I also cringe at the pile of coyote carcasses shown in the trapper's forum. We need to think about who is visiting this site and what's appropriate. Even though I've been hunting since I was a little kid I still find the Bobcat photos in bad taste for this site.

Thanks for the sane dialogue. I appreciate the fact that you kept your cool.

Where I come from life is slow pace. There is no reason for me to get bent out of shape over something like this. You have your views on things an I have mine and we can discuss them here and act like adults.
Have a good day!

Cannonball ... I feel as I stated before, that the pictures were taken in good taste and I never saw the cat in any distress from being in a trap. Only one picture barely showed the trap. Mostly the cat was bothered by a human being close and not fighting the trap.

cliff

Out of curiosity I did a little research to reassure myself that I didn't have A kitten, but was in fact a adult. After reading several descriptions on bobcats I have found that adult bobcats weigh between 15-35 pounds with females being 33% smaller. Here is a pretty good write up.

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_bobcat.htm

I think as hunters and trappers it is becoming a little bit too much trying to appease and not offend people for the things we do. Yes we kill animals and we eat them too. Get used to it, man has been doing it forever. Lots of animals are trapped for the sole purpose of their fur and not eaten. For some this is a way of life. I for one have had enough of walking on eggshells to be sure someone who doesn't "approve" of something in the hunting/trapping world isn't offended.

I have already heard all the arguements about fueling the anti cause with a simple picture.



CO Bowhunter,

I'm sure the mere sight of an elk head strapped to your back would be enough to cause alarm for some, or the deer heads I have on my wall at home. Whatever it is, be assured it will offend someone. Whether or not we let this group who are offended dictate how we live is up to us....

You all raise some excellent points. In the future I'll limit my remarks to my own feelings about a photo or text rather than speaking for others.

I appreciate the challenge!

You shouldn't have to limit your remarks, if done in good taste and I didn't see anything you wrote as anything other than that.

While I don't agree with everything that was said here, I really appreciate the civilized tone and well thought out debate. Well done guys.
I did find one thing PaPaBob said a little curious though:

In studying his avatar, a lot, I would say half of the subjects are alive and half are natural. None appear to be both.
Kidding aside, I would like to make a couple points. About 10% of the population hunts and about 10% are anti-hunters and we will not change either of these groups views on hunting or trapping. The other 80% are non-hunters. These are the people who get to vote on whether or not we are allowed to continue hunting. While I do believe we as hunters and trappers need to be respectful of these people and try not to offend them, I think this particular thread really highlights the unfair negative bias against trapping. Through Best Management Practices and other work over the last hundred years, trapping has really improved how humane the tools of the trade are. It is unfortunate that most of those improvements are unknown to the public, even on forums like this made up primarily of sportsmen and women. I think that is highlighted by the fact that to my knowledge the only photo to be removed from the forum is of an animal in a trap. I have seen hundreds of pictures of dead deer here. This is just an observation, no disrespect meant to anyone.

My two cents

1. Some people would see the pics we have posted of animals hanging in garages, on "meat poles" and in the backs of trucks and find them distasteful. They may even try to use them against us.

2. Some people don't have a clue that if they are alive they must being killing other animals, (yes, even veggies)

3. Death usually hurts,,,,but every living animal on earth will face it.


4. Our society is so far removed from reality that they can't handle the truth.

Do we need to show pictures that may represent some of these facts?

Are we the Real Deal Hunting Chat?

That is up to us to decided.

I thought the pics were awesome, personally I would not have known it was in a trap had you not of said. I am a lady hunter and had no problem with it. I agree with trapper on some of his points (what would the world be like if someone wasn't offended ?)

PaPaBob,Why not move it to the trapping forum then instead of removing it. I didnt get to see it and would like to.

Commando: Yes, that is probably what I should have done. I have been thinking about that as I have been reading all of the replies. As I stated earlier since this forum has to do with Trail camera and video pics and clips these pics were not of that nature. So, I made that move and as you stated they could have been moved to our Trapping forum. I will do that now and Cannonball if you feel confortable reposting the pics they would be better displayed there.

All the above "Cool-Headed" debate is a testament to the quality members on this site. I don't think the results would have been the same on any other site, but then again, RDHC isn't just "Any other"

site and I am proud to be a member !

Good idea and good answer. I have always had problems with sportsman trying to hide what we do. If it is legal then I will not throw stones. My earlier post was trying to point out that we (in this type of forum) are doing things that others will have a problem with. It is the nature of a hunting reality. A reality that society has lost touch with. Instead we should show how their lives also have more serious consequences to our natural world.

I second what DDW said. Watched and read all the post and was amazed that every one kept cool heads and worked it out.

I have no problem reposting the pics for the people that didn't get to see them. I didn't realize there was a trapping forum here or I would have posted them there instead for sure. I am so hooked on "Trail camera help" and the " Photo " forums I didn't realize any other forums exsited....LOL. Anyway I am real proud of my accomplishment. I have dedicated lots of time and effort into this. I have learned so much about predator animal movement, patterns and thinking the way they think. As far as the debate it was awesome and loved hearing differnt peoples veiws and sharing the way that I think. Love to hear some more from everyone. If nothing else lets see if we can hit 1000 views...LOL.

You can link to the pics here
http://realdealhuntingchat.invisionzone.co...showtopic=12539

I'm glad to see them back on they truly deserved to be seen.