I guess you may already know, but my name is Steve Allan and I am the founder and owner of SA2 & SA3 Traps Ltd. I am a vastly experienced trapper, with some background in engineering. These skills have brought me into successfully designing and fabricating my own line of kill traps which include possum, ferret, and our highly sought-after Feral Cat traps.

I did want to add before I tell my tale that the comments made on this site are my opinions and judgements based on 50 years of trapping and 25 years of trap design and manufacturing. They also come from lessons learned over the years and from the over 100,000 pests I have eradicated during that time while using a wide variety of trapping equipment and techniques.

During this time, I was also lucky to spend time with some Old Time Trappers, this interaction has been invaluable to my knowledge skill set. As a teenager I was able to spend 6 weeks with a long-time trapper and from that moment I knew that trapping and being in the bush were things that I wanted in my future.

I got into trap making because I felt that kill traps were a much more humane, efficient, and effective device.  They are also safer to non-target animals such as native wildlife, pets, and livestock. All these features are much better options in the eyes of the public, and the landowners.

It was in the early 1990’s that I started making my first kill traps for possums and feral cats. During that time, I have had many different prototypes and designs. All of those produced lessons learned (some good, some bad) none the less they were lessons, and have brought me to my current designs which I have been fine tuning for several years and now feel comfortable that we have an effective, safe and easy to use, line of traps.

My wife and I live in the Far North just South of Kaitaia, we started this line of traps in a small garden shed (as you will see in the video) with very basic tooling equipment that I designed myself.  Back then it was very labour intensive and very, very hot in the summer months, we did this on an off-grid lifestyle block that we owned.

Since those early days we have grown the business and have streamlined the fabrication, and manufacturing processes and feel we are ready to play a bigger role in the effort to have predator and pest free New Zealand. In recent months we have moved our small facility to a much larger premises, an ample workshop area for now and future growth that makes us think – How did we ever do this before. This room for growth will assure we can keep up with growing demand for the SA2 Feral Cat trap and the SA3 possum trap. We are just releasing the SA4 ferret trap to market.

Our facility is run by a small team of local people that all bring a variety of skills that enhances the success of our business. The traps are all hand made in our small factory and we try and source our products for local or Northern region supplier when possible. Our business development is self-funded and tooling equipment is designed in our shop, so we are able to fine tune all aspects of each trap.  

We have had much needed support from Northland Regional Council who has funded the NAWAC testing process for the SA2 trap as well as DOC and  Kiwi Coast for supplying us trap boxes and a local platform to promote our products, and in 2019 I was awarded with the NRC Environmental Innovation award that recognizes those who have demonstrated innovation and initiative in protecting, restoring and enhancing Northland’s environment.

Our trap line is user friendly and can be set and placed by all age groups, and genders, from the young person just starting a career in trapping to retired people needing to keep the possums off their fruit trees.

We know that great results come from great processes, having a variety of tools in your toolbox and training is a key part of that.

We hope we can help you with your needs in our Industry.