BANGOR – The owner of a Stetson center for training hunting dogs was fined $1,200 last week after pleading guilty to three charges related to setting traps, some on 6-foot poles, to capture birds of prey.

Dennis Seelenbrandt, 54, apparently wanted to catch and kill the raptors to keep them away from his rabbits, according to members of the Maine Warden Service who discovered the traps last May.

The traps are considered unusual and are rare in Maine. Lt. Tim Liscomb of the Maine Warden Service said at the May press conference that in his 19 years with the warden service he never before had seen a pole trap set.

A former police lieutenant from Rhode Island, Seelenbrandt runs the Pleasant Shores Beagle Club, a training center for hunting dogs located in Stetson.

Seelenbrandt was convicted of failing to label traps, trapping in closed season, and using pole traps. He was fined $400 for each offense. He appeared before a judge Dec. 13 at Newport District Court.

Acting on a tip, a game warden who works in the Dexter-Newport area discovered the unusual – and illegal – trapping operation in Stetson on May 4.

A press conference was held in Bangor three days later, when three game wardens displayed some of the 25 traps they said were discovered on Seelenbrandt’s land.

The trapping operation included 21 foot-hold traps perched on 6-foot poles. This type of trap is illegal because it is used mainly for catching birds, including federally protected birds of prey such as owls and hawks.

Feathers from five different nongame species were found near the traps, wardens said.