pspan style=”font-size:12px;”span style=”font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;”Week of October 28, 2013/span/span/ppnbsp;/ppstrongCheers/strong to the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and its leaders who voted Monday to discontinue the city#39;s use of animal trapping as a way to manage beavers and other wildlife. Staff will report back a year later on the results./ppCity Council members also voted to have city staff prepare a bylaw that would forbid body gripping traps, such as leg hold traps, within the municipality. Other B.C. municipalities, such as Surrey, have similar bylaws awaiting provincial approval.img alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nainamo.jpg” style=”width: 200px; height: 91px; float: right; margin: 8px;” //ppThe Nanaimo Daily News reported that trapping has been a local hot topic lately, following concerns from residents who discovered legal traps on private property in the Linley Valley area./ppCity staff recommended that the city cease trapping altogether. According to city manager Ted Swabey, the city has contracted for trapping services approximately five or eight times within the last 10 years. In the past, the city has used traps to relocate beavers to other areas./ppThe subject triggered near unanimous remarks from council members Monday night./ppCouncil member Fred Pattje proposed the motion for a bylaw to prohibit body gripping traps, which have been denounced as cruel by various animal welfare groups. He said he and council member Bill Bestwick met with representatives from the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, and we came away pretty well convinced that there are different and many and non-lethal ways of dealing with beavers, he said./phr /divnbsp;/divdivnbsp;/divpstrongJeers /strongto the Connecticut couple facing charges in a child abuse case after investigators say they used an electric ldquo;no barkrdquo; dog collar to punish a child in their care, and to the manufacturer of the collar, PetSafe. This case illustrates the cruel nature of no-bark shock collars and Friends of Animals advocates for a ban on such collars in the U.S. market./ppEduardo and Paula Montanez, a married couple, were arrested Tuesday, five days after a Danbury school employee contacted the Department of Children and Families regarding suspected child abuse./ppA joint investigation by DCF and Danbury police revealed that Eduardo Montanez had used a PetSafe barking collar on a 9-year-old girl in the couple#39;s care. Police said the couple was upset about the girl#39;s progress report, so Montanez put the bark collar around her neck and forced her to bark so the collar would shock her, authorities said.img alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dog%20collar.jpg” style=”width: 250px; height: 188px; float: right; margin: 8px;” //ppAccording to police, the girl went back to school and told a teacher about her problems at home. The victim told police the shock collar incident had only happened once, but marks on her neck indicated it may have occurred more often./ppCritics of no-bark shock collars, in addition to inflicting pain, can also discourage all barking in sensitive dogs. Dogs have become scared and aggressive because of no-bark shock collars. The collars nbsp;have also been known to induce stress. Added stress will lower a dogrsquo;s quality of life and could lead to health risks such as depression and anxiety. For these reasons bark collars are illegal in some Australian states. We hope the United States will follow suit./pdivnbsp;/divdivemAlternatives to electric no bark collars/em/divdivnbsp;/divulliTake an obedience class with your dog./liliNever yell at your dog…instead consider using a spray bottle when your dog barks and rewarding them when they stop./liliWalk your dog daily and provide them with interesting toys to keep them busy./liliKeep your dog indoors when you are unable to supervise it./liliTeach your dog a quiet comand…allow two or three barks, then say quiet while interrupting the barking with a loud noise./liliHave your dog neutered to decrease territorial responses.nbsp;/li/ul