‘Use of Snares’ Report Presented to the Scottish Parliament

The National Anti Snaring Campaign has recently presented the Professor Harris “Review on the Use of Snares” that we commissioned to the cross party committee on Animal Welfare of the Scottish parliament.

The game shooting lobby has recognised the cruelty and indiscriminate nature of fox snaring, and so created a “breakaway snare’’ designed to free non-target badgers caught in fox snares.

However, laboratory studies NASC has commissioned show that over 70 kilograms of force (eleven stone) are required to break a weak link when the pulling replicates a badger’s neck, with the weight falling on a wire 2mm wide. Even this does not equate to the dynamic forces of a struggling animal, and consequently 69% of badgers do not escape, but are often significantly injured, and there is no data on the long-term survival of those badgers that do, having had to exert extreme force, usually with the wire wrapped around the soft tissue of their neck.

There has been a 64% decline in rabbit numbers since 1996 and fox numbers have fallen by 44% largely due to the decline in rabbits which were a staple of their diet. Combining this with the move to intensive rearing of livestock and any argument that snaring is needed for the agricultural economy has long vanished.

The parliament now has a consultation on the use of snares and glue traps etc. Please circulate

https://consult.gov.scot/environment-forestry/wildlife-management-in-scotland/