Regular visitors to the OneKind website know that we currently have an opportunity, under the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, to do away with snaring altogether in Scotland.
As drafted, the Bill re-states the current Snares (Scotland) Order 2010 with its requirements for stops and checks and positioning of snares, along with new provisions for snare identification tags and operator training.
OneKind, along with other animal welfare groups including the League Against Cruel Sports, is campaigning to have this section replaced with a simple ban on snares.
This morning, Scottish Labour MSP Marilyn Livingstone presented an amendment to the Bill to create just such a ban. In the event, on an issue of major public concern, she felt that any vote on this matter would be better in the full Scottish Parliament and did not press the amendment in today’s Rural Affairs and Environment Committee.
The Committee has been repeatedly told by the users of snares that there are no viable alternatives to snaring and that the countryside economy would be severely affected if they were not available. No independent evidence has been advanced in support of these views but the Scottish Government and the Committee have decided that snares remain essential.
OneKind continues to challenge those views. Take a look at our Snares Resources page and the OneKind Report on Snaring. Released chapter by chapter, it already provides robust academic reviews of the impact of snares on animal welfare and biodiversity, the available alternatives to snaring, and the use of snares in agriculture.
Further chapters on issues such as snaring and the law and the economic role of snaring in the shooting industry will follow shortly, creating a resource on this issue that exists nowhere else. In the animal welfare chapter, experts from Cambridge University conclude that snaring is one of those pest control methods that have such extreme effects on an animal's welfare that, regardless of the potential benefits, their use is never justified.
Committee members are still trying to improve the Bill, short of a ban, for example with an amendment to provide for a review of the snaring provisions in two years’ time. Another amendment proposed that operator training schemes should have a proper animal welfare component, something they signally lack at present.
But let’s be clear. If the Scottish Parliament decides to defer a ban on snaring for a further period, every incident, every animal that dies in a snare far away and out of the sight of Holyrood, will be a reproach to all of us who could have prevented such suffering.
However, we would monitor the situation actively, collating reports and highlighting every incident of suffering that comes to light, as well as pressing for better enforcement of the law.