Family dog killed in animal trap set near home

Family dog killed by trap A family is devastated after their dog was killed by a conibear trap while out for a walk five minutes from home.

A family is grieving and demanding answers after their dog was killed during a walk just behind their Dundalk home.

Less than one week ago, Cheryl Ireland lost her “gentle giant” calling his death 'senseless.'

“I can’t stop picturing it in my head when I close my eyes at night, and I didn’t even see it,” she says.

Cheryl's mother took her four-year-old dog Winston for an off-leash walk through a wooded area just minutes from home last Thursday afternoon.

“And we came out of the forest into this clearing, and we heard this sound, and it was kind of like a yelp.”

Elaine Antram and her friend found the dog with a conibear trap clamped around his neck.  They tried in vain to pry it open as he lay bleeding before Antram ran for help.

“By the time I came back with help, Winston was gone.”

It took only minutes for their pet to die of his injuries.

Now the family is looking for answers about who set the trap and why it was there.

“You took away a member of our family,” says Antram.

She says she had permission to be on the property owned by a private citizen, and says any traps laid on that private property would be illegal.  Antram says a second trap was found just a few feet from the first one.

According to police, conibear traps are legal to purchase, but you have to be a licensed trapper to use them.

OPP say they have no evidence leading them to believe that the traps were directed at humans.

Both the police and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are investigating the tragedy to determine whether anything illegal occurred.

In the meantime, as the family mourns the loss of Winston, they hope for justice, so this never happens to anyone else.