Please support Vale Wildlife Hospital to ban the use of snares

[Hedgehoggy]

Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre ('wildliferescuer' WAB member) is in the process of getting 38 degrees to back them on a petition to ban the use of all snares.

Please take a moment to view Vale's snare section on the suffering these snares cause and then follow the link to place your vote to back their petition.

Warning: Some people may find the graphic images upsetting. A direct link to vote (bypassing the images) can be placed by clicking here instead.

Quote from Vale Wildlife Rescue:
Over the years we have had to deal with countless wild animals that have suffered horrendous injuries after being caught in snares.

Most of the snares used in these incidents are perfectly legal and those that set them will have the public believe that they do not cause any suffering and that once an animal is caught in one it will not struggle but will sit quietly until it is dealt with.

The photographs on this page show that this is simply not true - a wild animal will struggle relentlessly once trapped causing horrific, major injuries to the part of the body that is constricted.

Every vote counts towards a ban on this antiquated and cruel method of indiscriminate 'pest control'.

[glsammy]

Happy to support it. A barbaric method that should have been outlawed long ago.

[PMG]

Signed and supported ...

[DorsetDunk]

Probably being a bit thick here but what does the option of 1 2 3 vote boxes mean ?

[Hedgehoggy]

Originally Posted by glsammy

Happy to support it. A barbaric method that should have been outlawed long ago.

Originally Posted by PMG

Signed and supported ...

Thank you both for your support

[Hedgehoggy]

Originally Posted by DorsetDunk

Probably being a bit thick here but what does the option of 1 2 3 vote boxes mean ?

38 Degrees gives you 10 votes to ‘spend’. You can use a maximum of 3 votes per campaign, and your remaining votes can be used (if you wish) on voting for any of the other listed campaigns which might be of interest to you. After a set time, the votes are all counted and the campaign with the highest votes gets considered (after consultations etc) for an official 38 Degrees full campaign.

Hope this helps

[DorsetDunk]

thanks for explaining
i have emails from 38 Degrees now after voting on full campaigns posted here but they do not seem to be wildlife related so really need to get a rss feed set up for those that just concern wildlife

[muldonach]

How many times does this have to come around?

The Scottish Government recently reviewed this question and, with some degree of tightening of legislation, found a blanket ban unjustified.

Snares are a valuable spanner in the toolbox - and have in the past been used by scientists to livecatch foxes for research.

There is a code of conduct for the use of snares and there should be no problem whatever with the use of snares in accordance with that code

Cheers
mac

[Hedgehoggy]

Hello Mac, I was awaiting your visit . Thanks for your comments, I’ll convey them to Caroline at Vale on your behalf.

Originally Posted by muldonach

How many times does this have to come around?

Until the use of these inhumane, indiscriminate contraptions are banned!

In the meantime, I’m aware that Scotland has tightened their legislation on the use of these contraptions, including (as far as I’m aware) having to take a half day GWCT or SCA course on fox and rabbit snaring + a simple exam and practical assessment. A certificate is then issued which can be used to apply for a unique reference number from a local Police Wildlife Crime Officer in order to set a snare. Unfortunately, England is behind the times with such legislation.

That aside, an outright ban is being sought because these contraptions are NOT humane, as the practitioners will have us believe. They’re also indiscriminate as there have been many documented cases of domestic pets being caught in them too.

The legal requirement is to check snares at least once every 24 hours. Even if this does happen, an animal could have been caught and struggling to get free for almost a day, plenty long enough for it to suffer the type of injuries our wildlife hospitals have to deal with on a regular basis. Wildlife Aid in Leatherhead had to put a fox to sleep this week after it sustained terrible injuries (and obvious suffering) from being trapped in a snare.

Originally Posted by muldonach

There is a code of conduct for the use of snares and there should be no problem whatever with the use of snares in accordance with that code

Are you suggesting that all of the documented snare-injured animals our wildlife hospitals deal with, are being caught in snares set by inexperienced/unlawful practitioners?

There are some professional 'pest control' members on WAB, and I've never read of one of them citing snares as their preferred means of pest control.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Hedgehoggy

Are you suggesting that all of the documented snare-injured animals our wildlife hospitals deal with, are being caught in snares set by inexperienced/unlawful practitioners?

nearly all will be yes - a stopped snare can't tighten beyong a certain diameter and its purpose is not to throttle the catch but to hold it for later humane despatch

while a free running snare can tighten it can also loosen when the pressure is off

these are the only two types that are legal , and most of the casualties brought in (including the famous shot of the cat cut nearly in half) will be victims of self locking snares which can only tighten but not loosen.

(self locking are usually now employed only by poachers who are already breaking the law and don't therefore care about such nicities as what types are legal)

there are some unfortunate animals that damage themselves with free running snares but these are very much in the minority and could be eliminated completely if free running was banned but 'stopped' left legal

Originally Posted by Hedgehoggy

There are some professional 'pest control' members on WAB, and I've never read of one of them citing snares as their preferred means of pest control.

You can't have looked very hard - there are numerous threads on fox control in which proffesional controllers indicate that snaring is the only other option to lamping - and lamping is both very labour intensive and not always appropriate. ( For example when i worked for norfolk wildlife trust they employed snare lines arround the heath to protect GNB from predation - lamping on the heath would have been incredibly disruptive to the birds they were trying to protect )

A 'stopped' snare is no more inhumane than a cage trap so long as it is checked regularly usually at dawn and dusk (for example a no lesser person than david macdonald used stopped snares to capture foxes for his doctoral work) and come to that a cage trap should also be checked at those times