New technology helps Spartanburg, S.C., trap and secure strays more efficiently
In order to help control the stray pet population more safely and efficiently, the city of Spartanburg, S.C., Animal Services is utilizing newly purchased technology. Two of these new technologies include Skyhawk Kiwi live trap monitors and a net gun.
Before the live trap monitors, Phillip Moore, animal services supervisor, stated the department was putting out more traps at a time that employees had to check more often. The goal was to check each trap every hour whenever possible and then last thing in the evening and first thing in the morning. With the new live trap monitoring, animal services employees receive a notification to their phone whenever one trap is triggered, making the time spent checking traps more efficient. Traps do still need to be checked regularly to ensure that the food used for bait is fresh and each trap is still properly set.
Moore did research online for various live trap monitors before settling on the Skyhawk Kiwi monitoring. “I thought, ‘Is there any other way we could be doing this more efficiently?’ And I found these online and thought it would really help us know when an animal is in the trap,” he explained.
The live trap monitors were purchased and set in May or June of this year. One reason these particular live monitor traps were chosen was because of their ability to attach to the traps the city already had. These monitors work off of cellphone signals and use batteries that are easy to replace, common lithium-ion AAA batteries. This made the transition of switching six traps to live monitoring an extremely easy one.
The city uses the trap, neuter and release method to help control the stray populations. (Photo provided by Spartanburg, S.C., Animal Services) 
After a dog has been trapped in the net gun, a Spartanburg Animal Services officer will use a catch pole to retrieve the dog and place it in a cage for transfer. (Photo provided by Spartanburg, S.C., Animal Services) 
When it comes to feral dogs, the traps typically do not work. Therefore, the city has also invested in a net gun, which fires using .308 caliber rifle blanks and shoots a 6- or 7-foot net weighted along the edges. It is user friendly and easy to pull back in and reset after use. (Photo provided by Spartanburg, S.C., Animal Services) 
The city of Spartanburg, S.C., is utilizing new technology to help control its stray population this year. On six of the live, humane traps, the city has placed live trap monitors. These monitors can easily connect to any of the city’s traps and, when it is triggered, send an alert to an animal services employee. This helps save both time and money when it comes to checking traps. (Photo provided by Spartanburg, S.C., Animal Services)
If Spartanburg Animal Services were ever to switch over to different traps or a trap can no longer be used, these live monitors can simply be switched over to another trap. The traps use a magnet and a string, and if an animal is trapped or the trap is set off, the string pulls the magnet from the monitor. This then alerts animal services of activity at the trap so it can be checked. Moore mentioned the city was given the option to choose text messages, email or app notifications to receive messages when a trap is triggered. They chose text messages and app notifications so they did not get lost in email notifications. Animal services employees are also notified if the trap vibrates so they can check the trap to see if someone or something is attempting to mess with the trap and ensure it is still set.
“They have a user-friendly app to assist in keeping which trap is set where and keeps track of the alerts,” Moore described. “This technology makes it so that we can focus more on other customers and issues and not have to physically check the traps as often. This also cuts down on vehicle maintenance, fuel and mileage from checking the traps so often.”
While the city has only been utilizing these monitors for a few months, Moore has already noticed a difference. “We are enjoying using the monitors, and the animals also benefit from the monitors by cutting down on the amount of time they are sitting inside the traps,” he emphasized. “This makes our trapping efforts more efficient.”
When it comes to feral dogs, Moore stated they could be a bit trickier to trap at times. The city had experienced some dogs that would refuse to go near any of the traps. This resulted in the city investing in a net gun. The net gun fires using .308 caliber rifle blanks and deploys a 6- or 7-foot net with weights on the ends. An animal services officer does need to be relatively close to the dog in order to deploy the net gun. After the net has been deployed and the dog is trapped, a catch pole is typically used to retrieve the dog and move it to a cage. The gun is also user-friendly, Moore explained, in how easy it is to pull the weights back in and reset the gun after being deployed. In Spartanburg, these trapping efforts tend to be utilized the most with stray cats and dogs, specifically the feral cat population. “Once we capture a feral cat, we can transfer it into a separate cage to transport it to be spayed or neutered. That way, we can put the monitored trap right back in service for the next feral cat to be caught.” This trap, neuter and release program is used to attempt to reduce the stray population. “I can safely say we’ve done over 900 cats since April 2022,” he mentioned, which is when Moore started in his position.
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