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By Charlene MacKenzie

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MIDLAND - An unfortunate encounter with a snare has cost the Steeves family a beloved pet. Teresa Steeves hopes to spare other families similar heartbreak by reminding people to check site and season restrictions before setting out snares and traps.

"I want people to know what the laws are and to know where their children are and what they're doing," she said.

The week before coyote and fox snaring season was to begin, one of the rural family's two border collies went missing. It wasn't trapping season yet and the dogs didn't roam far from the house, so they weren't too concerned. After searching for one-year-old Jersey, however, they found her alive but snared by the lower jaw, not far from their home, Nov. 12.

The next evening the other dog, Tipper, didn't come home after going outside around 8:30 p.m. The children, aged 17, 14 and 11, searched in the darkness and rain until 10:30 p.m.

The youngest child went to school the next morning but the older two stayed home to help search for their 11-year-old pet. The family found the dog dead at 7:30 a.m. with a snare wire wrapped tightly around its muzzle.

"The kids were pretty wrecked," said Steeves.

Suspecting the snare was set too close to their home, they called the Department of Natural Resources and found out the snare was within about 160 metres of their home, in violation of Fish and Wildlife Act regulations requiring snares be set at least 300 metres from homes.

It was also a couple of days before fox and coyote snaring was set to begin. A conservation officer was investigating the case last week.

Traps and snares can't actually be set before the season opens, and it's illegal to even have traps or snares in the woods for more than 48 hours before the season begins.

Snaring season for coyote and fox began Nov. 15 and runs until Feb. 28.

Snaring season for rabbits began Oct. 1, but these would be much smaller snares than those set for coyotes and foxes and would be unlikely to harm a dog, said Rebecca Brawn-Greer, a conservation officer with the Sussex branch of the Department of Natural Resources. She said there are usually two or three complaints a year about snares catching pets or being set too close to homes and public areas.

While snares can be set closer to the licence holder's own home, they cannot be set within 300 metres of any other dwelling, school, playground or place of business.

A fur harvester's licence is available to N.B. residents 16 years and over, while a minor fur harvester's licence is available to residents aged 10 to 15. Licences are valid from Oct. 1 to July 31 of the following year, but licence holders must know the varying harvesting seasons of individual species.