A new report reviewing the current use of spring traps in England has been published by the National Anti Snaring Campaign (NASC) group.
Authored by Professor Stephen Harris, the report was commissioned as a direct response to Defra’s Animal Welfare Strategy, which was announced in December 2025, laying out the Westminster Government’s priorities and a framework for the changes it seeks to achieve by 2030. Those priorities include a ban on snares, a ban on trail hunting, and a review on traps and gamebird rearing (see here).
Thousands of traps are used in the countryside to kill so-called ‘vermin’, and they’re particularly common on driven grouse moors, where the intention is to protect grouse stocks from predation.
There have long been concerns about the animal welfare aspects of traps, particularly spring traps, and that includes traps that have been set legally, as well as those that have been deliberately (and illegally) mis-used to kill non-target species, including raptors (see here for many previous blog entries on this subject).
New legislation in 2020 was intended to counter the inhumane trapping of some species, particularly Stoats, although the subsequent new-design spring traps are still a cause for concern (e.g. see here).
The new report on spring traps in England is comprehensive and includes a review on current use, welfare implications and legislation. NASC has sent a copy of it to Defra to help inform policy.
The report is available to read / download here:
Raptor Persecution UK 
These abhorrent, sadistic spring traps should be banned permanently.
Supposedly used in the countryside to kill so-called ‘vermin’, and just as likely any other animal that suffers its fate getting caught in one, being particularly common on driven grouse moors, where the intention is to protect grouse stocks from predation: more likely their huge profits from the shooting fraternity is their biggest worry.
Just ban grouse moor shoots. That would then, hopefully, end the need for these monstrous traps