US 6,658,788 B1Granted

Two door animal trap and cage device

OwnerDale R. Steinfestinventor

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A live trap and cage assembly has a base, opposing sidewalls and a central main support section. To either end of the sidewalls is a door. Each door is movable from an upper position to a lower position. The doors are configured so as to be quickly moveable from the upper position to the lower position upon the triggering of an event inside the assembly. The base of the assembly includes a bait reservoir or “billboard” which is situated to the exterior of the assembly, and a bait holder and release mechanism which is situated to the interior of the assembly. The bait holder is suspended within the interior of the assembly by a cable which extends downwardly from the central support of the assembly. The cable is attached to each of the opposing doors and allows full movement of each door from the upper position to the lower position. The bottommost portion of the bait holder is slidably attachable to a “trigger” bracket. Upon movement of the bait holder within the assembly by a lateral force applied to the bait holder by the animal, the bait holder slides out of the trigger bracket which releases the bait holder and the cable which is under tension, thereby instantaneously moving the opposing doors from the upper position to the lower position and trapping the animal within the assembly.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A live animal trap and cage device which comprises

a longitudinally extending base member, said base member having a floor and a pair of parallel sidewalls extending generally vertically upwardly from said floor, said base member having a first and a second opening at each longitudinal end of said base member as means for ingress and egress therethrough by an animal,
a generally flat central support member extending between and being attached generally perpendicularly to each of said base member sidewalls, said central support member lying in a generally horizontal plane and including an aperture defined within it,
a tubular conduit attached to and extending generally perpendicularly upwardly from the central support member at the central support member aperture, said conduit defining a continuous conduit interior that extends from an uppermost portion of the conduit to a lowermost portion of the conduit,
a first and second door, each of said doors being formed in a generally L-shaped configuration and said first door being functionally adapted to cover the first base member opening and said second door being functionally adapted to cover the second base member opening, said doors being hingedly attached to said central support member,
a cable having a first cable end, a central cable portion and a second cable end, said first cable end being attached to said first door and said second cable end being attached to said second door, said central cable portion being folded over onto itself and being routed through the conduit interior and through the central support member aperture thereby forming a cable loop that extends downwardly from the central support member,
a fastener, said fastener being slidably attached to the cable loop that extends downwardly from the central support member,
a bait assembly, said bait assembly being configured to hold a bait and further being configured to be attached to the fastener to suspend the bait assembly and bait from the cable loop and fastener and above the floor of the base member in feeding relation to an animal entering through either of the base member openings, and
a bait assembly anchor, said bait assembly anchor being attached to the floor of said base member and directly below the central support member aperture and the suspended bait assembly.

5 more elements

A device for live-trapping and caging an animal to facilitate the removal of the animal from one habitat to another which comprises

a longitudinally extending U-shaped base member, said base member having a floor, a pair of parallel sidewalls extending upwardly from said floor and defining a passageway therebetween, and opposing longitudinal ends,
a first opening located at one longitudinal end of said base member and a second opening located at the other longitudinal end of said base member, said first and second ends providing a means for ingress and egress to the device by an animal,
a central support member extending generally horizontally between each of said base member sidewalls and including a tubular conduit attached to and extending generally perpendicularly upwardly from the central support member, said conduit defining a continuous conduit interior,
a first and second door, each of said doors being formed in a generally L-shaped configuration and said first door being functionally adapted to cover the first base member opening and said second door being functionally adapted to cover the second base member opening, said doors being hingedly attached to said central support member,
a cable having a first cable end and a second cable end, said first cable end being attached to said first door and said second cable end being attached to said second door, said cable further having a central cable portion that is folded over onto itself and is routed through the conduit interior,
an aperture defined within said central support member, said central support member aperture being functionally adapted to receive the folded over portion of said cable therethrough, said aperture being located at one end of the conduit such that the folded over portion of said cable extends through the aperture and forms a cable loop that extends downwardly from the central support member, and
a bait assembly, said bait assembly being attachable to the folded over portion of said cable by means of a fastener that is slidably attached to the cable loop that extends downwardly from the central support member and being configured to hold a bait thereby.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.