Some Brighton residents are angered and concerned about traps at Island Lake State Recreation Area in Green Oak Township after two family dogs got stuck in traps.
Jamie Tobbe says it was a terrifying experience. Her dogs are doing much better, but she's now worried about the children who play in the area.
"I said watch for traps, there’s traps," Tobbe said, when talking to emergency personnel who came to rescue her dogs.
Tobbe says she comes to walk her dogs at Island Lake Park pretty regularly, but after her dogs both became stuck in coil spring traps, she’s now thinking twice about bringing them back.
"I have two of my dogs in traps," she told emergency personnel. "They’re both wailing and screaming."
Her dogs are doing much better, but more so frightened than anything else.
Tobbe says her concern isn’t just for family pets but also children who play in the area.
"I have been out here, like I said, 15 years," Tobbe said. "I’ve never been afraid and I’m scared to death now for my dogs (and) for children."
The incident happened in an area north of McCabe road in Green Oak Township. The area is open to hunting and trapping. A fence is around the property, but there is an opening for people to get inside.
Tobbe says she had no idea it was hunting property.
"I never ever knew that there were traps out here," she said. "I never envisioned that they were hunting out here with traps."
Trappers wanting to put a trap on state land need to have their name and a Michigan Department of Natural Resources ID number on the trap. The DNR says traps are perfectly legal, and coyote hunting is allowed year round on state land, but Tobbe says there should be signs telling people it’s hunting property, warning them of the dangers.
"We need some warnings out here," Tobbe said. "We really do because I don't want that to happen to anybody else."
Tobbe says she won’t be letting her dogs off the leash again anytime soon, and is now planning on walking her dogs somewhere else.
