Animal protection charity OneKind will be taking the anti-snaring message to the Love Pets show in Edinburgh this weekend (1 and 2 September).
While snares are set to catch “pest” species such as foxes, rabbits and hares, these indiscriminate traps also regularly capture non-target species, including pets.
The OneKind SnareWatch website www.snarewatch.org, which asks members of the public to document their concerns about snaring incidents, shows just how often pets fall victim to snares. Out of 34 reports currently published on the site, four are about dogs and no less than 14 are about cats.
In one typical incident, reported on SnareWatch in April, a cat returned home with a snare around her back legs, so tight that her owner could not remove it. She had obviously managed to set herself free but was in a lot of pain and extremely frightened. Her owners said they had no idea where she could have been caught in the trap.
Many people don’t realise that snares are still legal, both in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK. People are horrified to learn that the law still allows the setting of primitive wire traps that cause great suffering to wild creatures, and capture many other non-target animals as well, including our much loved dogs and cats. We hope that visitors to the Love Pets show will come to our stand and sign up to our campaign against cruel snares, for the sake of all animals.
The OneKind team will be manning Stand No. 4 at the Love Pets show and asking visitors to support the campaign to have snares banned outright, across the UK.
The OneKind stand will also offer vegan treats for dogs and handmade organic catnip mice for cats, animal-themed Christmas cards and cuddly toys, plus information and ideas about animal welfare.
The Love Pets show is in the Highland Hall, Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh EH28 8NB on Saturday and Sunday 1 – 2 September 2012.