Exactly a year ago today Scotland introduced regulations which made it the most tightly regulated country in the UK when it comes to snaring. After years of campaigning for a ban it was slightly bittersweet that we had managed to achieve so much to improve the situation around the use of snares yet had failed to achieve the ban we so badly wanted to adequately protect animals from suffering needlessly.
So a year on and the question is: has the situation actually improved or has it all been in vain? In theory yes, of course the situation has improved. Snare users are now required by law to undergo training before they can be issued with identity numbers which enables them to legally set a snare and their snares can now be recognised by an ID number which links the snare to the person responsible for maintaining them. All this is very helpful along with a number of other measures which should potentially make things better such as not setting snares onto heavy objects which could be dragged away by the trapped animal and avoiding locations where an animal could become tangled in fencing or drown while held in the snare.
The frustrating reality of the situation though is that nothing much has changed. The horrendous injuries, the mental suffering, the slow painful deaths, the stress and fear all caused by an animal being trapped in a snare are all still very real and very much a problem.
These problems are not just confined to the target species either. Despite stringent legislation non-target species continue to become victims of snares. In a recent incident in the Scottish Borders a dog became trapped in a snare while out walking with its owner. The dog was caught in a legal, tagged, free running snare in February near to its owner’s home. Fortunately the owner was able to free the dog from the snare but for this one ‘lucky escape’ there are many, many more which are not so lucky.
So where do we go from here? Do we admit defeat and accept that Scotland will never be snare free or do we keep fighting? The answer is easy, we keep fighting. It’s sad that this cruelty continues to be legitimised through regulations which were never really about the fundamental problem of snaring - the suffering these traps inflict.
A year on and there is nothing to celebrate. We certainly won’t be throwing a party to mark a year of regulated snaring. Scotland may look better on paper when it comes to snaring but on the ground we are not much different to any other country in the UK. We may be able to identify who set a snare that caused an animal’s suffering, but by this stage the suffering has already happened so is it really so great?
OneKind believes that the use of snares should be banned everywhere in the UK which is why our campaign never stops. You may be aware of our efforts to push the issue further up the agenda in England through a postcard campaign to MPs at Westminster. We are also working hard in Wales, Northern Ireland and of course Scotland. To find out how to join our campaign and do your bit to help ban snares you can visit the snaring pages on our website which will keep you updated on what we are doing.
Snares are unnecessary, cruel and indiscriminate. They have no place in modern society so please help us to make their use illegal once and for all.