I have never had a land-dwelling animal chew its foot off, I have had muskrats "ring off" when caught by only the front paw. Now as to the Chelmsford issue, I am well aware of it. That by law was passed because the Conservation Commission was pissed off that the EPO that lived that town was a trapper (ME) I had confronted the Chairman of the Con Com about breaking beaver dams which he had no authority to do, and the game was on. As to the predator getting an easy meal, both times that happen, it was a mink that ate part of a muskrat that was in a trap. I caught the mink in both places that next night. Oh, Another thing about the Chelmsford Debacle. I was the person that was able to bring in ten trappers into town to take on the beaver problems when the by law was repealed. It took us two years to get a handle on the problem. I had beaver that the pelts were scarred due the fighting because of the over population. What would have been high end blankets were graded as damaged.