Thank you. Same for you.

There's no right or wrong way to deal with "helpful" customers. Everyone has their own personality and style of doing business.

Had a woman call me about a problem beaver. Her husband tried to trap it himself but had no luck. He was using a #1 longspring! I went out and set a couple of snares and one Belisle 330. Later that evening she calls me asking "how you release that thing?" Her husband didn't like the way I had it set and was going to move it. When I got there he had both hands stuck in it just above the wrists. He didn't touch my Belisle anymore and it cost them double! Painful for him both ways.

My contract says right in bold print that the customer is NOT to tamper with my equipment and by doing so is a violation of State law.

This stops most people but I still have the occasional customer who can't help but shoot whatever is in my traps. When they do that I charge them the cost of the trap at the end of the job. So a few customers get a damaged trap fee added to the final invoice.

Trap tampering fee greater than the animal removal fee...

WOW! If I set a 330 anywhere near a clients home, water sets only of course, I do a driveway demo of it's power. I also tell them "this trap will kill your dog and break your kids arm, stay away". I also show them both of my thumbs, I renew my 330 club membership more than annually.

330 Belisle!? I bet that was more than painful.

I really shy away from using 330s anywhere I think a customer or pet could find them. The modern cage traps, designed for beaver, work well and eliminate the risk.

I even get hesitant using 750s around "helpful" customers. lol

The Belisle wasn't set near their home. It was set in a channel under a couple of inches of water. That's how he got both hands in it. He thought it should have been set on the dryland trail like the snares. He got a painful education on Texas trapping laws as I took my time getting him out of the trap. Think I got my point across cause he made his wife come outside to pay me. I never even saw him again!

I don't care who ya are! That's funny right there!

Yeah, If I caught someones pet in a lethal trap, that could hurt my feelings. Or if some kid got hung up in one of my sets and got hurt. Either case would be bad and bother me. But a grown man? Nah... I'd have to laugh at that. A grown man ought to know better!

Oh! And I forgot about the bloody beaver I caught in one of my snares last November. I was trapping beaver for a logger I use to work for years ago. About 9 in the morning, I was finishing up checking my line when I came up on one of my snares with a beaver in it. The animal was lying half in and half out of the water. A stream of blood was running from it's head region, across the sand and mixing into the water. On closer investigation, it's head was blown apart! A royal mess!

"What the hairy happen to you?" I wondered. I loaded the bloody mess into the back of my truck, remade the set and came on out. Back at the shop, I learned what had happened. customers Grand-son-in-law, is that the way you would describe it? Grand daughters husband? Anyway... As he was going past my set to check on his cows, he saw a beaver in my snare and shot it for me.... SHOT it.... For ME!....

As politely as I knew to be, I told him, "Please don't do that again."