A member of the public stumbled across a gruesome scene this morning on a grouse moor in the Peak District National Park.
@PatHeath2 posted the following images on twitter:
The photographs, reported to be from a grouse moor on the north eastern side of the National Park, have understandably caused widespread disgust and anger.
It’s not clear from the photographs or the accompanying commentary whether this is an illegally-set trap i.e. it had been deliberately pegged out on open ground instead of being placed inside a natural or artificial tunnel or whether the trap had somehow become dislodged from its original [legal] setting inside a tunnel.
Either way, this animal’s suffering is sickeningly and indisputably brutal.
It’s yet another pitiful victim of the savagery that is driven grouse moor management.
And all inside the Peak District National Park; an area where you might reasonably expect wildlife to be protected, respected and cherished. It isn’t, of course, in this or in any of the other UK National Parks where grouse moor management dominates the landscape and where wildlife is simply treated as either a commodity or an inconvenience, to be dispensed with without a second thought.
The photographer has been urged to report this incident to South Yorkshire Police so the circumstances of the trap-setting can be investigated. Unfortunately this particular police force does not have a strong track record when it comes to investigating suspected wildlife crimes e.g. see here and here, despite this area being a well-known wildlife crime hotspot.
Raptor Persecution UK 
My god ,ban these bloody things.How can any twisted mind justify this.
What sort of foul perverted mind could inflict such wicked injury on an animal. These people must have the mindset of nazis.
Can this incident be reported to the RSPCA 24 hour telephone line 0300 1234 999
There is no justification for these traps. It doesn’t matter whether they are put in tunnels with restricted openings: they are still indiscriminate killers and kill or maim anything that wanders in. Besides, what have Weasels and Stoats done to warrant such barbaric and cruel treatment? They have evolved their way of life over millennia and it has never been a problem until the last couple of hundred years when greedy humans decided they wanted total control of the land and the wildlife in it, most recently, so they could over-breed birds to be shot, so they can accumulate more wealth to shove offshore.
Well said !
I second that!
Well said Simon, these disgusting things that operate under the name of game keepers should not be allowed to continue their evil ways, what sort of person would choose to do what they do, I hope they rot in hell
Spot on!
Agree with you 200% Simon tucker
Funny how the custodians of the countryside, those who really know the land far better than anyone else because they’re on it all the time, who could tell them clever dick graduates a thing or two…..never see this. For that matter they never see pheasants guzzling down wader chicks or red squirrel numbers perk up when pine marten return. Strangely they seem to manage seeing juvenile ravens ravenously devour curlew chicks in Strathbraan though. Is the Scottish equivalent of the three wise monkeys the three ‘wise’ gamekeepers? Mind you that’s probably being a bit overly complimentary to most gamekeepers and certainly not kind to monkeys. This photo explains an awful lot about why non shooting people have never been welcome on the moors, and as with raptor workers they’ve tried to label them as the cause rather than the observers of wildlife decline and the cruelty to it – yes birds of prey are actually being driven away by walkers! It can’t have taken much pressure for that young hare to trip that trap, imagine if it had been a curlew instead, does that never happen too?
“Custodians of the countryside” is a euphenism for countryside Gestapo.
There are plenty of potential offences here …
Offence 1
Any spring trap intended to kill a rabbit should have been placed in the rabbit hole.
Pests Act 1954, S9 Open trapping of hares and rabbits in England and Wales
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/2-3/68/section/9
S9(1) “Subject to the provisions of this section, a person shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection if, for the purpose of killing or taking hares or rabbits, he uses, or knowingly permits the use of, a spring trap elsewhere than in a rabbit hole.”
Offence 2
I can’t see what type of make the trap is shown in the photos but only traps approved for use with rabbits can be legally used to kill rabbits.
Pests Act 1954, S8 Restriction on type of trap in England and Wales.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/2-3/68/section/8
S8(1) “Subject to the provisions of this section, a person shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection if . . . (a) for the purpose of killing or taking animals, he uses … any spring trap other than an approved trap (approved under the Spring Traps Approval (England) Order 2018 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1190/contents/made) for animals or in circumstances for which it is not approved.”
S8(2) “The approvals given by S8 paragraph (1) are subject in all cases to the conditions … (if any) as to the animals for which, and the circumstances in which, the spring trap may be used as are specified in the corresponding entry in Column 2 of the Schedule (contained in The Spring Traps Approval (England) Order 2018 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1190/contents/made) (or, in the case of a trap approved under the equivalence provision in paragraph (1)(b), as are so specified in relation to the trap to which it is equivalent).”
S8(3) “In subsection (1) of this section any reference to an approved trap refers to a trap of a type and make for the time being specified by order of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries as approved by him either generally or subject to conditions as to the animals for which or the circumstances in which it may be used, and any reference to the animals or circumstances for which a trap is approved shall be construed accordingly.”
Offence 3
This trap has not been pegged down in the tunnel. You can see the ring on the end of the chain is completely free. I simply don’t believe this kit was able to pull the trap out of the tunnel and into the heather with a leg snapped off like that. Clearly the person who set the trapped omitted to peg the trap down. He (and I believe it will have been a he) caused unnecessary suffering to that young rabbit by his omission and he should have known it would cause suffering.
Animal Welfare Act 2006, S4 Unnecessary Suffering
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/45/section/4
S4(1) “A person commits an offence if—
(a) an act of his, or a failure of his to act, causes an animal (including a bird) to suffer,
(b) he knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the act, or failure to act, would have that effect or be likely to do so,
(c) the animal is a protected (ie captured) animal, and
(d) the suffering is unnecessary.
(2) A person commits an offence if
(a) he is responsible for an animal,
(b) an act, or failure to act, of another person causes the animal to suffer,
(c) he permitted that to happen or failed to take such steps (whether by way of supervising the other person or otherwise) as were reasonable in all the circumstances to prevent that happening, and
(d) the suffering is unnecessary.”
(3) The considerations to which it is relevant to have regard when determining for the purposes of this section whether suffering is unnecessary include—
(a) whether the suffering could reasonably have been avoided or reduced;
(b) whether the conduct which caused the suffering was in compliance with any relevant enactment or any relevant provisions of a licence or code of practice issued under an enactment;
(c) whether the conduct which caused the suffering was for a legitimate purpose, such as—
(i) the purpose of benefiting the animal, or
(ii) the purpose of protecting a person, property or another animal;
(d) whether the suffering was proportionate to the purpose of the conduct concerned;
(e) whether the conduct concerned was in all the circumstances that of a reasonably competent and humane person.”
Offence 4
That trap should have been pegged down in the rabbit hole!
Animal Welfare Act 2006, S9 Duty of person responsible for animal to ensure welfare
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/45/section/9
S9(1) “A person commits an offence if he does not take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible are met to the extent required by good practice.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, an animal’s needs shall be taken to include—
(e) its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.”
There are actually loads of other offences but they will depend on the circumstances and without knowing more, I could bore everyone with a list of possible offences.
If that trap was left out in the open then ANY animal or bird could have been injured or killed by it. There are offences against that.
That poor creature. It’s truly sickening.
And the bastards are even trying to justify this on facebook; claiming that this trap is legal and is used by the RSPB.
I’m highly critical of RSPB’s vermin control practice, especially towards native predators, but even I find it hard tol believe they would use such primitive instruments of torture.
Of course it wouldn’t Iain. The claims came from a well-known gamekeeper and serial liar.
I’m still waiting for the RSPB to get back to me about the investigation initiated by the claims, presumably by a SGA member, that their traps on Orkney for the stoat cull were set illegally. I had no doubt they would prove to be a ‘mistake’, but of course would the SGA put the same effort in publicising that as they had the original claims? If the RSPB could verify the allegations were groundless we could at least throw this back at the SGA and point out they’ve not provided a retraction which would justifiably put them in a bad light not the wronged RSPB. I appreciate that members of organisations in some ways have more freedom than the organisations themselves and that gives us a responsibility to stand up for them, but the RSPB is inconsistent and generally very inadequate in standing up for itself even when it can. Predictably there are times when the RSPB Scotland Facebook page gets hit very badly by trolls – every bit of crap imaginable is thrown at it. In many cases all the RSPB would have to do is respond by posting its own reports and project news, that’s all, but there’s only one occasion I recall they actually did so. It’s almost always left to genuine RSPB supporters to go and Google the relevant (RSPB!) information and respond with it, otherwise shite goes unanswered which can suggest it’s true. It’s frustrating when you see how open and not even outspoken just honest Ian Thomson of RSPB Scotland is about raptor persecution that the rest of the organisation seems to be scared of its own shadow most of the time.
I agree Les. The tweed disease know that the RSPB almost always responds with a dead bat, which is exactly why these cowards libel it so frequently.
‘tweed disease’ love it! I think the RSPB respond with a dead bat on a good day, usually it’s zilch. Here is one of the articles about this total non story . https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/islands/orkney/1759112/orkney-stoat-cull-row-erupts-over-trap-setting/
The SGA of course pushed it like hell, it also appeared in The Scottish Farmer, Orkney News and I recall the BBC covered it at least as an item on their web page. An awful lot of smoke from what was only a question over a small technical detail, not even a confirmed illegality. Of course that was the whole point. I had to laugh at remarks from the SGA in one of the articles that if their members had been found setting traps illegally they could lose their firearms certificates and their jobs!!! Compare what we’ve seen on the last two RPUK posts with the pathetic allegations about the RSPB stoat traps on Orkney.
As the news dates from more than three weeks ago I think it’s safe to assume that the concerns were groundless otherwise the SGA would be crowing about it. No similar level of effort from the SGA informing us the traps were actually fully legit of course, so people will only remember a story about the RSPB using ‘dodgy’ traps. It would be great to underline double standards by using the SGA’s own ploy against them with all the evidence that’s coming through of improper/illegal traps on grouse moors right now, put’s all questions over ‘internal baffles’ in context!
The RSPB use a different kind of spring trap, one of the new ones that’s supposed to replace the Fenn types, and they use them in quite a sturdy tunnel. They use them on Orkney where stoats are non native and invasive predators, so completely different to the large scale killing of them on the mainland where they’re a native species.
Scum.
Only the demented would do this. Only the seriously demented would try to justify it.
Once again why is anything like this still legal.
It is (was)
a Mountain Hare leveret, not a rabbit.
Thanks. I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t see the tail and the brown tips and length of the ears didn’t look defined enough to be a hare.
[Ed: comment deleted as libellous]
So this poor little creature died then? Couldn’t a rescue have taken it, apart from his paw being trapped he was still alive!
Hi Ed
I certainly didn’t mean to be libellous but I can see why you say that. Maybe if I put it this way …
Under the
Pests Act 1954, S10
Amendment of Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948, as to spring traps.
The following sections shall be substituted for section fifty of the Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948 (which regulates the use of firearms and spring traps for the purpose of killing hares or rabbits):
S50(1)(c)
for the purpose of killing or taking animals, he uses, or knowingly permits the use of, any spring trap other than an approved trap, or uses, or knowingly permits the use of, an approved trap for animals or in the circumstances for which it is not approved;”
I can’t find any spring traps approved for use with hares in the Spring Traps Approval (Scotland) Order for 2011 or the Spring Trap Approval (Scotland) Amendment Order 2018 but I may be wrong.
That trap could have caught a small dog, or even a curious child out walking with it’s parents.
Attention Geoffrey Cox Q.C. also my local Member of Parliament ; please examine the horrific news item on this site and also examine the attached legal requirements which ARE IN FORCE at this time. After which please tell me what action you will take since you are a guardian of the law – at the Bar and in the palace of Westminster- and I am your highly concerned constituent. I adopt this approach to you if only because your normal means of contact with we your constituents has been proved to be totally ineffective in my experience. My e-mail address is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I reside in postcode xxxxxxxxxxx
This is so cruel and wicked…nothing will be done or looked into as the majority of the police forces are corrupt and don’t give a dam
I know one policeman who most definitely isn’t corrupt and who is doing their damnedest to improve the detection of and prosecutions for wildlife crime in Scotland.
Indeed, Les.
There are LOTS of dedicated, hard-working police officers doing their best to tackle wildlife crime. Sure, there are some who aren’t, and who shouldn’t be anywhere near a wildlife crime investigation, but Lynn’s suggestion that the ‘majority of police forces are corrupt and don’t give a damn’ is lazy and unfounded, even though her frustration is understandable.
It’s probably frustrating for many of the officers too involved, knowing that in all likelihood their efforts will be fruitless.
Before this horrendous incident came to light, I saw some gin traps for sale on the Facebook marketplace as ‘metal items’. The seller had a photograph of these ‘metal items’ about a dozen were pictured, some looked new but most were old rusty things the jaws of all of them had grizzly looking teeth.
I tried to report them but facebook make reporting very difficult if not impossible. I found it impossible.
The people that use these traps are not human.
The horrendous photograph of leveret, is unlikely to have become trapped down a hole or in an allegedly legal trap.
Doug
No comment needed, no words of condemnation will stop these retards doing such awful things
That’s horrendous they need banning now
Absolutely disgusting !. Totally Horrific
99 percent of keepers give the others a bad name, sickening bunch of people