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"I find it extremely cruel to make animals suffer like this. I don't know how the person who set these traps manages to sleep well at night". These are the words of Mario Cramerstetter, president of Pépinière Cramer, located on chemin Saint-Dominique in Les Cèdres, who contacted Néomédia to denounce the presence of coyote traps on his land. 

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The total area of land owned by Pépinière Cramer is 60 million square feet, or 1,600 acres. To put this into perspective, you only need to put 700 soccer fields side by side to get an idea of the size of the lots owned by the family business. 

In a video interview with Néomédia, the businessman recounts how one of his employees discovered the presence of traps on the company's land at 1002 chemin Saint-Dominique last week. 

During the filmed interview, Mario Cramerstetter also discusses the impact of the presence of these devices on his land, on his employees, customers and himself. In particular, he tells the story of River, a dog discovered in one of the company's barns.

"Some people come onto my land, with our permission, to hunt. I'm not against hunting per se, on the contrary.It's less painful for the animal than using coyote traps.There are other, less painful ways of getting rid of a nuisance animal. I myself have used one of these methods in the past to capture raccoons that were making life difficult for vines on my property. I put them in a cage and released them into the wild once captured. I never thought of killing them.He's trying to survive as best he can. I'm against trapping animals, and coyotes too, since they're natural predators against field mice and hares," he explains.

A word of caution 

Mario Cramerstetter took the opportunity to pass on a message to the neighbors of Pépinière Cramer and to any Vaudreuil-Soulanges residents who might be tempted to let their pets run wild in a wooded area. He also wants to question elected officials. 

Has he filed a complaint with the Sûreté du Québec and the Protection de la Faune? If so, how did they help? In Quebec, the law does not prohibit the use of coyote traps. However, on its website, the Quebec government provides the following clarification: 

"To trap on private land, you must apply to the landowner for permission to access his site.In the interests of respect, you must pay particular attention to where you set your traps so that they are safe for humans." This is not the case here, as Mr. Cramerstetter points out. 

Finally, will the company take any extra steps to prevent a situation like the one recently experienced from happening again? "We have a very large site and it's difficult to be everywhere to keep an eye on things.I'm fed up with being told by the authorities that there's nothing they can do," he concludes.