LETTER: Nevada and the cute little kit fox

I couldn’t help but notice the irony in the Friday Review-Journal article about the Nevada State Parks’ new mascot, “Carson Kit Fox.” A cute little caricature of a fox in a park rangers uniform.

But it wasn’t that long ago that a couple with their kids and dogs found a kit fox in a steel leg-hold trap just outside of Las Vegas. Their children were upset at the tiny fox’s suffering, and so the couple freed the fox from the trap — a trap where it would have suffered immensely in a long, slow death over many days, probably dying of dehydration.

So what did officials with the Nevada Department of Wildlife? They were going to arrest the couple for taking the trapper’s “personal property,” but instead they just fined them $700. The Department of Wildlife, just out there protecting Nevada’s wildlife!

A steel leg-hold trap is a cruel, barbaric way of killing an animal. Maybe before the kit fox represents the state of Nevada, the state of Nevada should represent the kit fox a little better.