How to Make an Animal Release Pole

An animal trap restrains a captured animal until you arrive to retrieve it. Before you can release the animal from the trap, you have to take precautions; even a domesticated pet can feel threatened by the experience and resort to its primal instincts, making it dangerous to approach. The solution is a catch pole, or a release pole, which is basically a noose on a stick. By slipping the noose over the animal's head and tightening it around its neck, you can restrain the animal as you release it from the trap while using the pole to keep its teeth and claws at a safe distance.

Things You'll Need

  • 3/4-inch galvanized pipe, 6 feet long
  • 3/16-inch aircraft cable, 9 feet long
  • Golf ball
  • 1/4-inch drill bit
  • 1/4-inch hex nuts (2)
  • Anvil
  • Ball-peen hammer
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Instructions

    • 1

      Drill a quarter-inch hole in a 6-foot long galvanized pipe, a half-inch from one end of the pipe.

    • 2

      Position a 1/4-inch hex nut on a 9-foot length of aircraft cable, a half-inch from the end of the cable.

    • 3

      Lay the nut and cable on edge on an anvil, then strike the top edge repeatedly with the flat end of a ball-peen hammer. The nut will collapse and the threads of the nut will grip the strands of the cable, making the nut impossible to pull off the cable.

    • 4

      Insert the opposite end of the cable through the hole in the wall of the pipe from the inside towards the outside, then pull the entire length of cable through the hole until it's stopped by the smashed nut against the inside wall of the pipe.

    • 5

      Insert the end of the cable you inserted through pipe's hole into the end of the pipe at the end you drilled, then push the cable down through the inside of the pipe until several inches of the cable protrude from the opposite end.

    • 6

      Drill a quarter-inch hole in a golf ball. Insert the end of the cable you've pushed through the length of pipe through the hole in the golf ball.

    • 7

      Insert the end of the cable you pushed through the golf ball a half-inch through a 1/4-inch nut. Lay the nut on edge on an anvil and smash it closed by striking it with the ball-peen hammer. The nut is a stop that will prevent the cable from slipping back through the golf ball, while the ball prevents the entire cable from slipping back through the pipe. When the golf ball is pulled flush with the end of the pipe, there will be a loop of cable approximately 12 inches in diameter on the opposite end of the pipe/pole.