Pet owner's loss leads to changes in trapping rules

Dan Babich was walking his 11-month-old yellow Lab Bella along the south shore of Lake Keegan in Rosemount last November when the dog caught a whiff of something.

Because Babich had been training Bella for hunting, he allowed her off the sidewalk about 100 yards to investigate.

After exploring, the two started to walk back and passed a metal post. Babich heard Bella yelp and thought at first that she was tangled in some barbed wire in the grass. When he looked closer, he realized that a metal trap was around her neck.

As Babich frantically struggled to remove it, Bella began to suffocate, her eyes wide and tongue turning blue.

"By the time I figured out how it all worked and where the release was, it was too late," Babich recalled this week. "She was gone."

Babich immediately notified the police, thinking there was "no way" trapping could be legal so close to a residential area. The trap was for coyotes and raccoons. He soon found out that Rosemount had no rules on trapping and started writing letters to city officials.

His efforts paid off. The Rosemount City Council on Tuesday night passed an ordinance 5-0 restricting where traps can be set.

The Rosemount ordinance limits trapping to areas currently open to bow hunting and firearms -- agricultural and rural residential land of 2.5 acres or more. Trapping also will be limited to parcels that contain at least 5 acres east of County Road 71 in areas zoned as heavy industrial.

Traps would also have to be set within a buffer of 25 feet from the property line and 50 feet from the edge of a public road, said Police Chief Gary Kalstabakken.

In Bella's case, the trap that killed her was on private property, and the person who placed it had permission to do so. Yet Babich said he didn't see any buildings or a fence indicating it was private property: "For all I knew it was city land."

A state Department of Natural Resources investigation found that no laws were broken in Bella's death.

Babich, who likes to hunt and fish, said he thought that trapping would have as many restrictions as hunting because both are dangerous.

Kalstabakken said the city wanted an ordinance that would satisfy both sides. "We don't want to totally restrict trapping in areas where it can still be done safely or there may be a need to control some animals," the chief said. But, he said, the city did want to "take precautions to try to limit the things that can go wrong in those situations."

Mayor Bill Droste said the ordinance reflects the city's considerable growth. "You need to make certain as housing encroaches or as development occurs or agricultural areas continue to move out that ordinances protect residents that move into new homes," he said.

Babich said he and his wife, Kathleen, don't want anyone else to experience what they did.

"It's just a dog, but at the same time, they become your family," he said. "Especially the trauma of seeing it happen in front of your eyes. It's tough to deal with."

The couple now has two dogs: Bella's sister Kolby and Maia, a Brittany spaniel-lab mix. Babich no longer throws a toy around for the dogs to fetch during walks as he did for Bella. He now keeps both dogs close and on a leash at all times.