No solution has been found to the problem of a substitute for the
steel trap for rabbits and vermin. So the steel trap remains a painful
necessity, as those know who have tried to keep great numbers of
rabbits within bounds. But steel traps are sometimes used where more
merciful ways of catching rabbits might serve as well. Rabbit catchers
who never think for themselves, but do things only because they
have always done them, will use steel traps where they could save
themselves much labour, and the rabbits a good deal of suffering, if
they were to use snares. Several hundred snares can be set in the time
it would take to set a hundred traps, and the snares cost little, and
weigh next to nothing--a consideration when traps or snares have to be
carried a long way. A few traps make a heavy load.
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