Press release from League Against Cruel Sports (27th June 2023):
CELEBRATIONS OUTSIDE THE SENEDD AS WALES BANS BRUTAL WILDLIFE TRAPS
Members of the Senedd joined animal welfare campaigners from the League Against Cruel Sports this evening to celebrate a historic vote to ban snares in Wales.
It followed the unanimous passing of the Agriculture (Wales) Bill in the Senedd earlier today which contained measures to outlaw these cruel and indiscriminate wildlife traps.
Will Morton, head of public affairs at the League Against Cruel Sports, said:
“The Welsh Government deserves huge credit for banning snares, inherently inhumane traps, which are completely incompatible with high animal welfare standards.
“Wales is leading the way in protecting wildlife from cruelty and we’re calling on the UK and Scottish Governments to follow their lead and ban these brutal devices.”
The attendees included 13 members of the Senedd as well as animal welfare campaigners from across Wales.
Up to 51,000 snares lie hidden in the countryside at any one time according to UK government figures. Defra figures
They are used predominantly by shooting industry gamekeepers on pheasant and partridge shoots to trap wildlife.
The same Defra research show almost three quarters of the animals caught are not the intended target species. So, this will include hares, badgers and people’s pets.
Polling carried out by YouGov in Wales in January 2021 showed 78 per cent of the Welsh public wanted snares to be made illegal.
The ban will come into force two months after receiving royal assent so snares should become illegal in Wales later this year.
Will Morton added: “Today we are celebrating the move to end the cruelty inflicted on animals by the use of barbaric snares, something that will have the support of the vast majority of the Welsh people.
“It’s a fantastic move for animal welfare and we look forward to snares being banned in the rest of the UK soon.”
ENDS
As many of you will know, the Scottish Government is currently considering a ban on snares as part of its Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.
In December 2022 the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission recommended that ‘the sale of snares and their use by both public and industry are banned in Scotland, on animal welfare grounds‘ (see here). As part of that report, evidence provided by the Scottish SPCA demonstrated that 75% of tagged snares were set illegally but even legally-set snares caused catastrophic injuries to both target and non-target species (see here).
In April 2023, Scottish charity OneKind published a new report also exposing the cruelty of snares and called for a complete ban (see here).
Some evidence on snaring has been heard by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee as part of their Stage 1 scrutiny of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill but the Government’s provisions won’t be heard until the Bill reaches Stage 2 in the autumn.
During the evidence session, discussion centred on a new type of snare, cynically called a ‘Humane Cable Restraint’. However, as OneKind’s Policy Officer, Kirsty Jenkins points out (here), “There is no design alteration or method of use that can make snares humane – the fundamentals of the method cause suffering“.
Chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA), Alex Hogg, gave evidence at Stage 1 of the Bill and claimed that the new snare design is “almost like a dog collar” (see here), implying that its use doesn’t cause the snared animal any suffering.
Interestingly, he used a similar analogy in another Parliamentary committee evidence session back in 2010 when the Wildlife & Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill was under consideration, including an option to ban snaring. Here’s what he had to say about snaring then:
“Those snares are set at certain times of the year to try to protect ground-nesting birds and lambs from foxes. Nine times out of 10, the animal will go into the snare in the hours of darkness. When it enters the snare, its instinct is to lie like a dog or hide, especially in the hours of darkness. When we check our snares first thing in the morning, which we normally do—we have a snaring round; we check the snares at daylight and onwards through to breakfast time—we will dispatch the animals that have been held in them. The snare must close to a certain tightness to be able to hold the animal. The old-fashioned snares locked, so the tighter they got, the more the animal was strangled. However, the snares that we now have are non-locking; they can slip back again. They will hold the animal in the same way as a choke lead on a dog that is pulling too hard” (see here).
Presumably these non-locking snares that Alex implied were virtually harmless are the same snares that the SGA are now calling to be phased out on welfare grounds?!
During the most recent evidence sessions scrutinising the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, Alex Hogg also refers to the new, so-called Humane Cable Restraint (i.e. the ones that the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission recommends are banned) as follows:
“The other important thing that I forgot to say was that scientists are using them. They are using them to catch foxes, tag them with radio collars then let them go. That proves to me that the fox has never been damaged” (see here).
I’ve heard this justification for snare use several times, and I’m aware that the GWCT has been using snares to trap foxes so that radio collars can be fitted before the fox is then released, but so far I’ve been unable to find any peer-reviewed scientific paper referring to the snaring method used. I’d be utterly amazed if the approved scientific method used by the GWCT involved leaving the snared fox for up to 24 hours before attending to it, as a gamekeeper is permitted. Any ethical committee overseeing this research method would undoubtedly raise an objection, so Alex’s comparison is somewhat disingenuous, in my opinion.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I have read on the GWCT website that one particular landowner uses some kind of snare to help protect the remaining four pairs of nesting curlew on their land. I didn’t read the detail but I’d be interested to hear any comments on this from people who know more than I do.
Of course they want ‘humane’ snares, that way they get the fun of killing the foxes all to themselves.
And I’d trust the GWCT as far as I could throw them.
Well done Wales! Scotland next.
I’ve followed some of the GWCT stuff on their snaring methodology to catch & tag & release foxes for research. The researchers were vastly more cautious and scrupulous than I have ever known in the real world. In addition, they reinforce several times how the new snare variant the so-called “humane cable restraint” must be used in open conditions with nothing around to tangle, snag or twist-up on. I wonder what proportion of real world snaring operations / total number of snares set are in open areas right now? Not many. And how many operators are as conscientious in their operations as the GWCT researchers? Not many, if any at all.
p.s. well done Wales!
Any word from Labour or LibDums on a ban in England if they win the next election?
Well done Wales.
Lets hope Scotland follows them.
This is a good thing and let’s hope that after the consultation on game bird release that some sensible restrictions are placed on that too. The only slight worry is that some will continue to use snares and perhaps a few will turn back to poison for foxes, one hopes not.
I noticed Alex Hogg said that gamekeepers ‘usually’ check snares the next day.As we know from experience there is little possibility that gamekeepers manage to check every trap and snare they set due to the volume of them.Many of us will have come across rotting corpses in traps that have not been checked in a long time.Wales has taken a courageous step and I was overjoyed when I heard the news.As we know, Westminster debated this recently and to their shame ignored public opinion and advice from animal welfare charities and did not impose a ban.Until we have a change in government we have no chance of one .Scotland I am more hopeful for.
“As we know, Westminster debated this recently and to their shame ignored public opinion and advice from animal welfare charities and did not impose a ban.”
And as we also know, the Westminster Hall debates do not result in any vote: they are for exploring ideas and not for setting legislation (they are not held in the Chamber), and are limited to either 30, 60 or 90 minutes only. So it is disingenuous of you to say that it was “to their shame” that Westminster “did not impose a ban”.
My point was that they did not accept a need for a ban so I wasn’t intending to be disingenuous.
“My point was that they did not accept a need for a ban”
That is untrue.
The Westminster Government’s response to one Conservative MP’s call for evidence on the use of snares, within the Chamber, stated
“Snares can cause immense suffering to both target and non-target animals, and it is an issue we are looking at closely as part of our continued drive to maintain the highest animal welfare standards in the world. Through our Animal Action for Welfare Plan, published in May 2021, we are looking at whether changes need to be made to reflect concerns raised.
The call for evidence on the use of snares will be launched in due course….”
The Westminster Hall debate was moved by another Conservative MP:
“I posted on social media that I was to lead this debate and it was widely shared. Many, many people posted comments, the vast majority, if not all, of which were totally opposed to the continued use of snares….
… I am grateful to the petitioners for bringing the debate to Parliament. We need to establish the evidence and make any necessary adjustments to the legislation that are appropriate and proportionate. What they should be is not exactly known yet. However, the process must start, and I look forward to its conclusions. I therefore hope the debate is the start of a sensible conversation, where tempers are not frayed and a solution can be found….
The ratio of Members present who want to ban snares to those who do not is 3:1, which is similar to the ratio for the wider population”
However, since then Boris Johnson has been pushed out, and a new, hard-line, anti-animal welfare, Prime Minister elected. In his resignation letter, Johnson asked “Why have we junked measures… to promote animal welfare?”
So the ‘call for evidence’ may now never happen in this Parliament.
Go on Scotland. You know it’s the right thing to do. Be bravehearted.
Well done the Senedd!
Now the question is, will Holyrood step up to the mark?
Holyrood ‘knows its place’ and will be waiting for the English Parliament to set the standard on snares as the English Parliament has done so admirably already with Deposit Return, Protection of vulnerable minorities and other progressive Scottish measures. What would we do without them ?
Countless laws have been passed by Holyrood, though to date no effective ones on raptor persecution or other land reforms. Feirt of the landowners?
Theyll be banned everywhere soon, tories wont get in again, then itll be all change, ban everything, its coming , no doubt.
“Theyll be banned everywhere soon, tories wont get in again, then itll be all change, ban everything, its coming , no doubt.”
Really?
The UK Labour Party are rowing back on climate change and animal welfare policies. Keir Starmer now says he ‘Hates Tree Huggers’ (that’s what he really thinks of us/you!), among other stuff. He wants a ‘rush for growth’ (at the cost of wildlife, who else?):
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-hate-tree-huggers-keir-starmer-explodes-over-green-policy-6hhnj9r9x
(He has already expelled an old acquaintance of mine, Ken Loach – who directed that wonderful film, Kes – for no reason other than he refused to publicly condemn Jeremy Corbyn among others)
Many congratulations to the Welsh Government, but this has been an awful, long time coming.
Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 1922, every Assembly and Senedd election since 1999, and all elections to the European Parliament in the periods 1979 – 2004 and in 2014.
The BBC claim that Welsh Labour has the longest winning streak of any political party in the world. That is quite something.
But animal welfare legislation has been absolutely minimal. However, times are changing… and Wales, and Welsh Labour, are beginning to show a lead in this regard.
I trust Scotland will be next.
Westminster parliamentary candidates… look out!
But God only knows what will happen in Northern Ireland:-(
This is a mega result! Something tangible to celebrate for a change. Let’s hope that it will be an outright, total, ban with no loopholes which could be exploited by the unscrupulous. Going forward, it will be interesting to see how this important precedent impacts upon the ongoing debates in Scotland and, ultimately, England.
Well done Wales! Glad I live there!
So the badger in the picture, we know suffered for several days before having to be euthanised?
So somebody watched it snared for days did they?
Very humane of you.
Er, actually, JB, the extent of the badger’s injuries allowed the vet to ascertain that she had been suffering in the snare for several days. Here’s the vet’s quote:
“The badger was sedated and during the examination the vet found that the snare had become totally embedded into her stomach.
There was infection and was very swollen and sore and it is likely that the badger had been there for at least three days”.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/badger-dies-after-being-illegally-14404052
The Aberdeenshire snared cat had inflamed infected tissue on each side of the ‘cheesewire’ type wound which ran hip to hip across his abdomen – the edges had started to necrose. This is a clinical evidence to the fact he had been in the snare for several days – he was missing from home 5 days!
My reply was to the banning of snares in Wales. I had not seen the badger photo, or I would have been incandescent with rage. I have watched them all my life.
“My reply was to the banning of snares in Wales”
Yes, that much was obvious.
But ‘JB’s’ comment is somewhat incomprehensible, as it appears to be addressed to everybody and nobody.
Brilliant news. Now just need to (a) find all the traps that unscrupulous people will still leave out, and (b) persuade the rest of Britain to do the same
Is there any clarity on how the ban on snares will enforced?
Or could this ban just result in illegal use, with snares continuing to be used on private land, where the public have no access and where detection will be almost impossible.
As welcome as this ban is, it will only be as good as the measures put in place to ensure compliance.
Will the police or other government agencies be given powers of entry onto private land to search for snares? Or will such powers be restricted to circumstances when the police have reasonable suspicion that an offence is being committed, in which case how will they be able formulate reasonable suspicion if the use of illegal snares is kept hidden from view, and any use could only be detected by trespass?
If the history of illegal raptor persecution is anything to go by, there will still be those who continue using them, knowing full well they will probably never be caught or brought to justice.
I will wait to see the exact details of the legislation banning snares before I celebrate.
An Aberdeenshire cat owner believed her pet had been “cut in two” after he was found with horrific injuries after being trapped in a snare for five days. No adaptation can stop snares from indiscriminately catching all kinds of animals and causing protracted agonies. Warning Graphic image. https://news.stv.tv/north/calls-for-ban-on-snares-after-pet-cat-found-with-horrific-injuries-in-st-cyrus-aberdeenshire