Posted By: Oysterman
Gratitude - 12/09/21 10:11 AM
Good morning!
I am grateful you are here and this forum exists. While I am new to trapping, my family is not. My family used to trap commercially in South Jersey. Farmers mostly. I have memories from childhood of the top level of a barn full of leg hold traps attached to long sticks....hundreds if not thousands of traps. Then they were conibear, and then they were gone. The traps went away as the generation of people in my family who trapped got old, infermed, and died. As far as I know there is only one member of my family left who used to trap rats in the salt marshes and he is extremely old, 3/4 deaf, and 7/8 crippled. My parents left south jersey in the 60's and went to California and did the hippy thing and that's where I was born. I was raised in Central PA . When I would come back to the farm to visit my grandfather he would get me to hunt or tell me to set out some muskrat traps or take me fishing. I moved back to CA and spent half my adult life there. When my mom got sick I moved back to PA to help take care of her and met my wife. My mom moved back to South Jersey to die and my wife and I moved here to start an oyster farm. I wasn't raised around hunting or trapping. However, I love hard work and even more love the outdoors. So I am so very grateful you all are here. I am very grateful this community is here. In my opinion, wild animal fur is 100% organic, free range, sustainable, locally sourced, hand crafted clothing with a low carbon footprint. I already make and pressure can catfood from squirrel and roadkill deer and I am going to do the same with the meat from my trapped animals. I feel trapping is ethical when the animals are respected and I intend to do that. So thank you for being here, thank you for continuing to trap in the face of such low fur prices and continuing opposition from misguided naysayers, and thank you for sharing what information you are comfortable sharing. Peace, good health, and success to all of you. David
I am grateful you are here and this forum exists. While I am new to trapping, my family is not. My family used to trap commercially in South Jersey. Farmers mostly. I have memories from childhood of the top level of a barn full of leg hold traps attached to long sticks....hundreds if not thousands of traps. Then they were conibear, and then they were gone. The traps went away as the generation of people in my family who trapped got old, infermed, and died. As far as I know there is only one member of my family left who used to trap rats in the salt marshes and he is extremely old, 3/4 deaf, and 7/8 crippled. My parents left south jersey in the 60's and went to California and did the hippy thing and that's where I was born. I was raised in Central PA . When I would come back to the farm to visit my grandfather he would get me to hunt or tell me to set out some muskrat traps or take me fishing. I moved back to CA and spent half my adult life there. When my mom got sick I moved back to PA to help take care of her and met my wife. My mom moved back to South Jersey to die and my wife and I moved here to start an oyster farm. I wasn't raised around hunting or trapping. However, I love hard work and even more love the outdoors. So I am so very grateful you all are here. I am very grateful this community is here. In my opinion, wild animal fur is 100% organic, free range, sustainable, locally sourced, hand crafted clothing with a low carbon footprint. I already make and pressure can catfood from squirrel and roadkill deer and I am going to do the same with the meat from my trapped animals. I feel trapping is ethical when the animals are respected and I intend to do that. So thank you for being here, thank you for continuing to trap in the face of such low fur prices and continuing opposition from misguided naysayers, and thank you for sharing what information you are comfortable sharing. Peace, good health, and success to all of you. David
