According to the states website, turtles are not listed as game and are categorized under an "animal to watch". At the end of the day you saved a critter and the person who left lines out unattended (which in itself is Illegal in IL) will probably figure the fish/etc snapped the line and got away. Another story for him or her of the ONE THAT GOT AWAY.
No... actually it is a recent law to counter the demand for Asian turtle smuggling. Alligator Snappers are protected completely and what I am seeing is two common snappers may be kept for personal use. I am double checking this. At either rate... I see the solid points some have made questioning whether I should have released him. I am almost certain the lines were not being checked and he looked like he had been on there quite a while... though I can't know that for sure. Knowing that efforts to protect them have been implemented makes me feel a little better.
What type traps do you use? There's no requirement that I am aware of in Alabama to even check a limb line. There is for fur traps though... 24hrs.
For fox I used 1.5 coils foot hold traps. We aren't allowed to use drags so all traps had to be staked. After a couple years of living here... I would pull my traps during rifle season as there are just to many idiots, slobs and thieves to deal with. 48 hours always seem too long for my taste like I said in the previous post. Seems odd they don't have a time frame for checking limb lines. Never heard of anyone using them here ( ND ) so don't no anything about it. I would almost be surprised if they were even legal here. Tim
Should have left it man. You had no way of knowing if some father and son were right around the corner about to check their first trap. Devils advocate...imagine if everyone just went around doing what they thought was right in the woods and then "justifying it". A lot of us would be missing tree stands and game cameras. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
I think you did the right thing. A person has to live with themselves, I have no love for snapping turtles either but I would have felt bad about the situation for a month afterwards had I left it there to suffer. Letting nature take it's course and stepping in on unethical activity are two different things. Lines and traps should be run within 24 hours anyway. I think the only mistake you made was posting a thread about it.
