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Officials in El Paso County, Colorado, have allocated thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund a heartless arrangement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a misguided effort to rid the community of homeless and roaming dogs. The county plans to have the USDA set leghold and snare traps—torturous devices that maim and kill animals—in various locations throughout the community.

Even with "padding," the steel jaws of leghold traps powerfully grip animals, and they don't always get animals by the legs. The traps often clamp down on sensitive parts of animals' bodies, such as their feet, heads, eyes, muzzles, and abdomens. So-called "padded" leghold traps offer nothing more than a thin strip of synthetic material between the steel jaws and the animals' limbs, and padding does not reduce the terror and pain that animals endure when the traps clamp down on them.