Woman, dog caught in animal traps

An Ottawa-area woman and her dog are recovering after they became ensnared in leg-traps her family believes were set for coyotes.

Krystle Morrow, 19, was walking in a field with her border collie Koby in the town of Casselman, east of Ottawa. The pair accidentally stepped on some animal traps.

Morrow's hand was caught in one trap while another pinned her dog's leg. She couldn't free herself or the dog, so she ended up dragging them both — along with the devices and the log they were attached to — more than a kilometre back to her home.

She was inside the house when her father Kevin arrived.

"I just almost went berserk," he said. "I'm a retired fire chief, I've seen lots of trauma, and there was nothing I ever saw that amounted to this."

He was working on removing the dog's leg from the trap when his daughter lifted up her own captured hand.

"Krystle was not concerned with herself, she was more concerned about the dog," he said. "She was crying for the dog."

The family said the Ontario ministry of natural resources is investigating the incident.

It comes as trappers are in demand all over the national capital region to deal with an influx of coyotes.

John Pisapio, a biologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources who studies coyotes, said the coyote population in the region is currently on a natural upswing, as the animals recover from an outbreak of a disease called mange in 2000.

Some Ottawa-area clubs are now sponsoring coyote-catching competitions.