Moray gamekeeper fined £1,500 for welfare offences
OneKind congratulates the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on securing the first conviction of a gamekeeper 'trained' to set snares in compliance with new Scottish wildlife legislation. Investigating officers found a badger and several foxes trapped in snares set around middens (stinkpits) baited with animal carcasses. The experienced gamekeeper had completed industry training but despite this had illegally set snares on drag poles and in a manner that allowed trapped animals to become suspended and hang themselves.
As the OneKind field officer commented on seeing the Scottish SPCA photographs:
"These pictures are depressingly familiar. I have seen and photographed so many snares set in the Scottish countryside in this manner. In 2010, when I took Bill Oddie onto a major Scottish grouse moor, we found dozens of snares set around stinkpits and throughout woodland.
“In this case, as with all wildlife crimes, it will have been very difficult to detect and prosecute the snaring offences - the Scottish SPCA has done a fantastic job in bringing this offender to justice."
OneKind wrote to the Scottish Minister for Environment Paul Wheelhouse MSP last year to raise concerns about the quality of industry training but the Scottish Government rejected our call for a review of snaring legislation before 2016. The conviction of an industry-trained gamekeeper can only strengthen our call for an early review.
OneKind is determined that the suffering of the animals in this case – and that of so many more animals going undetected across the UK - will not be ignored. We understand that options for snaring in England, following publication of a major report by DEFRA last year, are still under consideration. While the conclusions of the report were disappointing (see our commentary here), the evidence gathered clearly demonstrated the indiscriminate nature of these cruel traps and implicitly supported the case for change.
Proposed wildlife legislation currently under review by the Law Commission could give Ministers powers to regulate or ban certain methods of taking or killing. OneKind hopes the UK government will have an eye to Scotland when it considers its position: tighter regulation can, and clearly does, achieve results in enforcement terms, but it cannot prevent the suffering of the animals in the first place. No amount of regulation, enforcement support or industry training can ever change the fundamentally inhumane nature of the snare.
This latest case will be recorded on our SnareWatch website, which is building a compelling picture of the nature and extent of snaring throughout the UK. It may only be the tip of the iceberg - but even then the evidence is clear for all to see.