SNP members demand compassion for wildlife
The campaign for a snare-free Scotland took an important step forward last weekend, as a packed fringe meeting at the Scottish National Party (SNP) conference agreed that the use of snares to trap sentient wild animals was unacceptable.
Delegates attending the meeting, organised by OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports, watched new footage of live animals in snares, filmed recently in Scotland. Although the film was distressing to watch, many people asked for copies to show at their local branches, and pledged to ask their local MSPs to support a ban on the indiscriminate traps.
The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, currently at Stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament, contains measures to regulate snaring, but not to ban it. However, an amendment is likely to be lodged at Stage 2 of the Bill which would remove these provisions and replace them with a ban on the manufacture, sale, use and possession of all snares.
Westminster candidate and practising vet George Leslie spoke movingly of the need to protect animals from suffering and related his own experience of having to treat people’s pets after they had been caught accidentally in snares. He and Christine Grahame MSP, (pictured) who chaired the meeting, called for SNP MSPs to vote with their consciences and against the Scottish Government’s policy of supporting snaring. One SNP councillor described the use of snares as “barbaric”.
A resolution passed in the SNP Council at the end of 2008 called on the Scottish Government to review its support for snaring, but Ministers say they are not bound by this as snaring policy was not included in the party’s manifesto for the last election.
Now, it seems, many SNP members are prepared to demand change.