By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Kitten Season appears to be coming early to Tucker County, according to Tucker County Animal Shelter Director Stacey Canfield. Canfield and her staff have already fielded three calls in the last two weeks about kittens in Mill Race Park. There are currently two litters of tiny kittens running around, as of Wednesday March 11th. With kittens already at Mill Race Park, the Shelter faces an old problem, theft and vandalism of traps needed to safely remove and care for the felines.
Last year at Mill Race Park, the County encountered problems in the park with traps being stolen or vandalized. A total of five traps were lost in 2025. All were at Mill Race Park. The average cost of a trap for the facility is $80 for a small trap.
“Last year the issue that we ran into with traps down there was we had three traps stolen,” Canfield said. “Every time we would go down and check the traps, they would be triggered and set off. People were shoving sticks in them and ruining them.”
In response, the Shelter is looking into game cameras. However, the cameras are cost prohibitive and not of the quality that the Shelter would need to monitor the traps for individuals who are stealing and vandalizing the equipment. The City was also contacted by Canfield, but no municipal cameras were placed in the areas the traps were located.
Each Shelter trap has a laminated tag to identify it as Tucker County Animal Shelter property. These tags, Canfield said, cannot be removed unless they are cut off with pliers.
“I just want the public to understand that its not that we don’t care to go or we’re not trying, but traps are expensive,” Canfield said. “We will be having to trap again, very, very soon and if you see that trap with a tag on it, that is property of the Tucker County Commission through the Tucker County Animal Shelter. Those cannot be tampered with when they are set.”
