Press release from OneKind:
ANIMAL PROTECTION CHARITY HIGHLIGHTS SOME OF THE CRUELLEST SNARING INCIDENTS IN THE UK IN 2022
Scottish animal campaigns charity, OneKind, has released a new report, SnareWatch Annual Report 2022: Case studies of snare use in the UK, which highlights some of the worst snaring, or suspected snaring, incidents in the UK during 2022.
Incidents involve species snares are intended to catch, such as foxes, and non-target species such as dogs, deer and badgers.
Snares are archaic traps used primarily to protect birds such as grouse and pheasants from foxes, so there is a surplus of these birds for people to shoot for ‘leisure’. They can cause considerable physical and emotional suffering to the animals trapped in them, and yet these cruel devices are still perfectly legal across Scotland and the rest of the UK, though a Bill currently going through the Senedd will soon ban them in Wales.
OneKind Campaigner, Eve Massie, said:
“Our latest snaring report, ‘SnareWatch Annual Report 2022: Case studies of snare use in the UK’, highlights the suffering inflicted upon animals by snares and why a ban on these outdated and cruel traps is crucial.
“Snares can cause the animals trapped in them considerable physical and mental suffering and yet unbelievably, these cruel devices are still legal in Scotland. Animals may suffer from deep wounds, internal organ damage or even death due to being trapped in snares. Death may be slow, as snares frequently become twisted or frayed as the animal struggles, leading to strangulation, or the animal succumbing to their injuries. They may also suffer from hunger, thirst, exposure and attacks from other animals.
“Snares also inflict emotional suffering, with trapped animals likely to become fearful and distressed“.
Eve commented on two of the incidents:
“In a particularly worrying case, a local discovered her 15-month-old Border Terrier, 2.5 hours after he had gone missing on his walk, trapped by his neck in a snare, choking in distress. Thankfully, the dog recovered.
“We also heard from a couple who found a distressed deer trapped with a snare around her neck. She was naturally panicking, causing the snare to tighten. She sadly died.
“As these reports show, snares are not only cruel, but indiscriminate to the species that they catch. Indeed, up to 70% of all animals caught in snares are not of the species snares are set for“.
On the Scottish Government’s current consideration of snaring, Eve continues:
“The Scottish Government is planning to introduce provisions on snaring at Stage 2 of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill and a ban on the use of these archaic traps could be a real possibility.
“OneKind believes that there should be a complete ban on the use and sale of snares in Scotland. Thousands of our supporters wrote to the former Minister for Environment and Land Reform, Màiri McAllan, in favour of a ban and are responding to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s call to views on the Bill, urging for a snaring ban.
“You cannot regulate cruelty“.
ENDS
OneKind is a partner in REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform.
OneKind has published an excellent short (2 min 20 sec) film about snares on grouse moors. You can watch it in the link below:
Raptor Persecution UK 
It is inconceivable that this insane cruelty is legal . Totally and sickeningly barbaric
The point about deploying snares effectively to kill foxes is that to achieve a good catch rate you have to accept some level or other of “bycatch” of unintended targets. Now, some users may care about this and others may not. But the bloke that devotes time to conscientiously following every best practice guideline by saying to himself ‘best not put any at X, as I once saw a badger print there’ or ‘best not put them at Y because hares go along that track too’ etc, etc doesn’t catch a lot of foxes and his effort often isn’t worth the bother. So much so that it’s hardly more time effective than control via rifle. The beauty of (!) snaring as a tool for fox control/killing is that they are very cheap in monetary terms, easy to set and if you put enough out in the right places (and/or pre-prepare your places i.e. middens / stink pits) you will get results while you are in your bed asleep or busy doing other things, perhaps more subtle “predator control”. When setting in numbers or as “lines” you are effectively doing a 24/7 static “trawl” of your beat or area for anything that happens to walk along & just happens to have its head at a certain height (even if you may have not predicted it to be there or do so) as it unwittingly meets the snare. But they are of course not cheap when it comes to the collateral damage, nor in terms of the genuine suffering to even the intended target – the fox. Complete ban is long overdue. If we cannot do better than this caveman stuff in this day and age, the something is very badly wrong with us.
Ban!
The banning is basically to stop ”gamekeeper” usage.
Employed by devils keen on killing anything for fun.
There should be a total ban on the use of snares not just in Scotland, but right across the UK.
Snares are cruel, barbaric and totally at odds with the concept that animals are sentient beings- a fact now recognised by parliament- yet the politicians do nothing to change existing legislation which fails to recognise this fact.
If there is a need to remove unwanted species from an area- then this can be achieved through the deployment of humane traps- and the animal removed and relocated.
I would suggest that politicians need to reminded themselves of the Animal Welfare(Sentience) Act 2022, when considering legislation on the use of snares, and ask themselves how the use of such barbaric contraptions is compatible with parliaments recognition of animals as sentient beings. If it isn’t then there should be an outright ban, with no clauses to allow use in certain circumstances (something which politicians seem to be very adept at when drafting legislation, as they try and keep their ” friends and masters” onside!!)
The other matter politicians should consider is the absolute dire state of nature in the UK. As others have pointed out – snares are indiscriminate and kill far too many non target species. If nature in the UK is to recover, and the government wishes to achieve its targets for nature recovery and biodiversity, then snares are also not compatible with this, as there is too much risk to non target species. Something again which supports an outright ban.
I also understand that studies have shown that if foxes are removed from an area, then foxes from elsewhere will simply move in to fill the vacant habitat. So the cruel, barbaric methods associated with fox control just repeat in an endless cycle.
Surely, humans as a supposedly intelligent species can devise far better ways of protecting vulnerable species other than through the endless slaughter, which seems to be only solution employed by those who claim to be the “guardians of our countryside”.
I had a Facebook ” discussion ” with a guardian of the countryside who said that modern Snares just hold, as opposed to kill. That was followed by the usual twiddle about us townies etc etc. I just said that raptor persecution had been illegal since the 50s , as are pole traps and using carbuforan whilst lead shot is still being used across wetlands, so I wasn’t holding my breath about Snares being used properly. Ban them.
Another point worth considering, is that even if snares are banned, I would suggest those who illegally persecute raptors will illegally use snares.
The real issue in the countryside, which politicians from all parties seem reluctant to address is how to rid the countryside of the criminals who persecute wildlife.
Since the source of so much persecution is linked to game bird management, then the only long term solution is either to ban game bird shooting, (something which will never happen) or legislate so that it is properly regulated and policed so that there is no place for the criminal to operate.
There is absolutely no reason why politicians couldn’t do this, other than the fact that without the criminal activity which takes place then there will probably be less game birds, and therefore less money to be made by those who operate and manage game bird shooting enterprises.
It would appear the game bird shooting industry in its current form is an industry reliant upon criminal activity. It would also appear that this criminal activity is a form of “white collar crime” and linked to social status, which may explain the reluctance to properly address the issue, either by passing the necessary legislation, or by the courts imposing meaningful sentences when the perpetrators are caught.
This is simply not acceptable in modern Britain.
Surely a method which results in a 70% bycatch rate should be banned for this reason alone. Where else would a process with such a high rate of inefficiency as the norm be acceptable?