Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Don't rely on early Amazon customer reviews of this product. It has been "redesigned" (according to customer service) which I understand to mean "cheapened", and rendered more dangerous to release an animal than it was to begin with. The trap you receive is as pictured in the first of the manufacturer's images, but NOT as pictured in their last image which shows a live raccoon in the cage. When mine arrived, I realized an essential part was missing and, rather than return it immediately to Amazon, I called Havahart customer service to see whether they could just send me the missing part. They answered promptly and were courteous and helpful, and told me I wasn't missing a part, rather the part was "redesigned" out of the product, so they had no part to send me. The owner's manual that accompanies the current redesigned Model is for a former model which no longer exists, but bears the same model number. So, the owner's manual you receive does not describe the product you receive. The missing "redesigned" part (see photo of instruction manual) is #2 and #4, the "Door Loop" and "Door Lock Frame". You would use this part to grip and lift the door while simultaneously pushing back the door locking bale when trying to release the captured animal. It formerly served the function of guarding your fingers while raising the door, which was at best a two-handed operation. Without this part, releasing a frightened, pissed animal is now a complicated three-handed operation that keeps your hands dangerously close to the opening door. The manual says to put a "stick" (not provided) sideways under the door, through one side of the cage and out the other side, to hold the door open while the animal escapes. If you need three hands to simultaneously (1) lift the top latch, (2) push back the spring loaded locking lock and (3) lift the door, where do you get the fourth hand to simultaneously push a "stick" through the cage to hold the door open while you move far enough away to not get bitten? There is no provision in the current model equivalent to the missing "loop" and "door lock frame" to grab and lift the door, so you have to put your fingers UNDER the door to lift the door, directly into the animal's path of escape, increasing your chance of being bitten. It's obvious that no design consideration was given to owner safety while releasing the animal. The "redesign", if anything, exacerbated what was already a questionable safety issue for the purchaser. Look at the first "customer image" in the online Amazon reviews. It shows the destruction done by a raccoon to the door that then still included the sheetmetal loop/lock that is now "redesigned" out of the new model. If a raccoon (then) could damage the reinforced door of the former Model 1079, the same animal now could devastate the door of the new Model 1079 that lacks the sheetmetal reinforcement. I've owned four (4) Havahart traps in the last 30 years, and I gave 5-star reviews to three of them. Two stars for the current Model 1079 would be to over-rate it, and to ignore the dangerously cheapened redesign. This model reeks of cheap construction all around, and appears inadequate to contain an aggressive animal determined to escape. The owner's manual suggests you can use this trap to capture a "bobcat". Really? A large raccoon will damage it. Two raccoons working together could open the trap by simply pulling the locking bale out of the containment sleeves. The missing part formerly prevented this, but in the absence of that part, a second raccoon wouldn't need many smarts to release his buddy. If you have basic mechanical skills, some tools, sheetmetal and heavy wire, you can redesign the "redesign" to partly overcome the animal release safety concerns. You need a 1/2" dowel or 1/2" x 1/2" stick to hold the top lock open while you hook a piece of metal coat hanger through a hole in the door. This keeps your fingers out of the animal's path while lifting the door with one hand and pushing back the spring-loaded locking bale with the other. The same coat hanger wire can be made to hook the door up (avoiding the "stick") while you get your hands away as the trapped animal escapes. This fix won't reinforce the light sheetmetal door however. A big raccoon can still twist the door out of shape as it did in the first customer image. You could reinforce the door with an additional piece of sheetmetal or plywood, but why should the customer have to do this at all? It doesn't matter how well a live trap can catch an animal if it can't safely release it. I would not recommend the redesigned Model 1079.