A 66-year-old gamekeeper has today been convicted of snaring offences in Scotland.
Brian Petrie, of Woodhead, Dunphail, pled guilty to three charges including setting snares likely to cause unnecessary suffering by partially or wholly suspending animals, setting snares in a manner likely to be dragged, and failing to release or remove an animal from a snare, all contrary to the Wildlife & Countryside Act.
Petrie was fined £500 for each offence, totalling £1,500. Most importantly, his conviction should now preclude him from using a General Licence for five years (unless of course he uses the convenient get-out clause offered by SNH, in which someone convicted of a wildlife crime may still apply to use an individual licence!).
For the gruesome details of the case, read the SSPCA press release here. Congratulations to the SSPCA for yet another successful wildlife crime investigation and prosecution. Isn’t it about time the Scottish Government opened their consultation on increasing SSPCA powers – you know, the consultation that was promised back in 2010 during the WANE bill debates? Three years on and we’re still waiting…
What’s particularly interesting about this case is that it’s reported that Petrie had completed the new snaring training course one year prior to the offences. It’s a good example of how some gamekeepers continue to commit wildlife crime, even though they’re often portrayed as ‘professionals’ and in this case, ‘qualified’ to set snares. Is this snare training course simply a box-ticking exercise that provides an air of respectability to a practice that, on welfare grounds alone, should have been outlawed decades ago? It really doesn’t seem to matter what legislation is put in place, whether it be for snaring or other types of trapping, poisoning, shooting etc – a lot of gamekeepers continue to stick two fingers up to the law and to all of us.
The press release doesn’t reveal the location of Petrie’s crimes, although we have a fairly good idea that he was working on a particular estate. We’ll do some more digging on that and report back if we can verify our suspicions.
It would also be fascinating to know if Petrie was/is a member of the SGA. Shall we ask them? Emails to: info@scottishgamekeepers.co.uk
UPDATE 8th May: see here
Raptor Persecution UK 
Well done the SSPCA and to the Fiscal for getting a conviction. Ironically, the more successful investigations carried out by the SSPCA the less likely the Scottish Govt is to give them enhanced powers. The SG’s chums will have a quiet word about the ‘meddlers’ and ‘troublemakers.’
They are true professionals, highly skilled and on top of their game…. so why on earth does the web site need this:-
“TRAPS AND SNARES: A REMINDER
With the snow gone and various kinds of trapping in full swing, can we take the opportunity to remind you that all legal non-lethal traps, corvid or animal, should be checked on a daily basis and all traps with decoys should be supplied with food, fresh water, perch and shelter.
All ‘fenn’-type traps should be covered at all times, with restricted entrance access discouraging any non-target species from easy entry.
At no time on open land, or even in sheds or outbuildings, should any ‘fenn’-type trap be set in an open position, exposing non-target species to danger.”
Surely this a bit like the Genereal Teaching Council telling teachers to buy chalk?
Professionals my a#####. They are a bunch of unskilled criminals……
Yes well done SSPCA you are definatly the good guys. Most of us wont be happy though, until these barbaric, cruel and inhuman devices are banned completely, as they are in most of Europe.
Excellent work by the SSPCA.
Nothing on the SGA or SLE websites about these horrendous crimes. You would think that if these organisations were interested in reducing criminality within the gamekeeping industry, then these crimes would receive immediate condemnation and suggestions to their membership that such actions will not be tolerated. Instead we have silence, because once again the industry has shown to the world that they cannot and will not operate within the law.
http://www.scottishgamekeepers.co.uk/content/sga-condemns-illegal-snaring-practice
Better late than never, I suppose, but instead of concentrating on the crime, the SGA revert to the usual crap about “benefits” to other species. As RPS has already mentioned on a subsequent post, it is pure basics that if predators are removed then other species will benefit, but in doing so a crude, artificial environment is created.