Severe Chronic Neck Injury Caused by a Snare in a Coyote, Canis latrans

Abstract

A two-year-old male Coyote, Canis latrans, in poor body condition was found in a moribund state with a snare deeply embedded in the ventral portion of its neck, more than a month after the official end of the trapping season on Prince Edward Island. This snare had presumably malfunctioned, and the cable had cut through the soft tissues of the neck as well as the trachea and had obstructed both jugular veins and both common carotid arteries but had largely spared both vagosympathetic trunks. Cases like this illustrate the need to continue to work on improving the efficiency of trapping methods, through research and trapper education.