What are live animal traps used for?

Live animal traps are most often used to capture a nuisance animal for removal from an area unharmed. Common scenarios for which a medium live animal trap may be the solution include feral cats or small stray dogs that may pose a health or safety risk to you and your family, racoons that tear through your trash, or gophers that are digging up your garden. In a survival situation you may find that animals also affected by the disaster are seeking food and water and may pose a threat to your food stores or safety and need to be trapped and moved a distance away. Also, you may want to trap an easy to breed and nutritionally viable animal such as a rabbit as a food source or to start a breeding program to provide your family meat in the medium to long term.  

Why use live animal traps instead of fatal traps or poisons?

Live animal traps are preferable to fatal traps for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, live animal traps ensure the safety of other animals, pets, and children. Fatal traps and poisons do not discriminate between the intended target animal and a curious pet dog or 6-year old. If your dog ends up in the live animal trap he can easily be freed without any injury. Second, live animal traps can be used to start breeding programs. By catching animals, such as rabbit, to breed for long-term food you'll need to catch them alive and healthy. Medium live animal traps allow you to catch and hold the animal safely and securely. You can even place food and water inside the trap to keep the animal as comfortable as possible once caught. Third, live animal traps are humane If you need to rid an area of a nuisance animal you can safely trap, transport, and free the animal humanely without harming it unnecessarily.

Why use live animal traps instead of hunting for subsistence?

Live animal traps are much more efficient than hunting. In a survival situation you will likely need to capitalize on your time, energy, and resources. Hunting for food is very time and energy consuming and depletes important resources like ammunition. Whereas hunting is time and energy consuming, trapping is not. Trapping provides maximum return on minimum effort. Once you set your traps they do all the work. All you need to do is check on them daily, empty and reset. Hunting can waste valuable ammunition that you may come to need to defend yourself and your assets. In addition to the waste of valuable ammo, gun shots are a telltale sign of your presence and that you possibly have a significant amount of ammo and other useful items that may bring less prepared people to you looking to take what you have.