A cat that was maimed and then killed on West McGaffey Street was the victim of a leg trap set illegally inside city limits, city and state officials said, and the person responsible could face jail time.
City resident Michaela Robertson reported Friday that while driving along West McGaffey Street Thursday night, she noticed an orange cat lying in a gutter but still moving. She got out of her car to check on the cat, she said, and saw that it had been hit by a car and that one of its legs was caught in a trap that the animal appeared to have been dragging. Robertson said she wrapped the cat in a small rug and contacted an Animal Control officer who had been dispatched to the scene. They tried unsuccessfully to remove the trap, which had been crushed around the cat�s leg, she said, and the cat died while being taken to a veterinarian.
�Accidents happen all the time, but that�s not an accident,� Robertson said, adding that someone must have set the trap. �No little animal deserves that.� Mark Madsen, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, said Monday that foothold traps, also known as claw traps, are illegal in the city.
�People should not be setting foothold traps in the city limits,� he said.
Larry Loy, special services administrator for the city, oversees Animal Control. He said Monday that the city did not know who set the trap and that the leg trap was the kind used to trap coyotes.
He said the trapping of the cat violated the city ordinance against animal cruelty and could bring a punishment as severe as a $500 fine and/or 90 days in jail.
�Traps of that nature have no business inside the city limits,� Loy said.
Loy said that cage traps, which do not injure animals, are allowed in the city, and that Animal Control used cage traps.
Loy and Judy Hathcoat, president of the Animal Welfare Alliance, both said Thursday�s incident was the first time they had heard of an animal being caught in a leg trap in Roswell. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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