Legislators in Scotland, England and Wales have agreed the use of a new snare-type trap, the WCS Collarum Stainless UK Fox Model.
Last week (30 November) the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee agreed a new Scottish Government regulation – the Spring Traps Approval (Scotland) Order 2011 – listing the range of spring traps that may now legally be used in Scotland. Similar orders have already been passed for England and Wales.
At around £100, the Collarum is more expensive than a snare, but easier to use and re-use, and claims a higher success rate because the animals are tempted in by bait. There has been no public consultation on the Order that approves this trap: it was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 10 November, and came into force on 24 November – a week before the rural affairs committee “noted” it without a word of debate.
Apart from the Collarum, every device listed in the Order is used for killing the target animal – or rather, because this can be a horribly inexact science, “killing or taking” – but at least these traps are intended to be quick, and lethal. But the Collarum is only intended and approved for “taking” foxes. The trap is designed to lure the fox in to bite at a baited trigger. When the animal pulls its head back, a wire noose is thrown around its neck and it is trapped, irrevocably. The frantic scrabbling, leaping and struggling that inevitably follow make no difference to its plight.
Sounds a bit like a snare, doesn’t it? Indeed, the new Scottish Order provides conditions for use which are very similar to those recently set down in Scotland for snares. And, mirroring the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association description of a snare, online retailers say that the Collarum trap holds the captured fox “like a dog on a leash”.
Regrettably, snares are still legal in this country and the Collarum is said to cause less harm than a snare as well as allowing for the release of non-target captures such as pet dogs. Proponents of the Collarum describe it as humane and make much of the fact that “the animal is unharmed”.
Take a look at the video here and see if you agree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fi7u4K1fqQ&feature=endscreen&NR=1
(PLEASE NOTE: you may find the video content distressing)
More humane than a snare? Well, that wouldn’t be hard. But this film still shows the struggle, the terror, the devastation of the surrounding terrain, and the despair and helplessness of a trapped, sentient wild animal – all too like the victim of a snare. Almost worse is the way that the humans walk around and discuss the efficacy of their new gadget, adding to the animal’s stress in its last moments of life.
OneKind has written to the Scottish Government raising our concern about the approval of the Collarum trap, and has asked that gamekeepers and other users receive as much training as the users of conventional snares.
But that would be a poor second best. The OneKind Report on Snaring http://www.onekind.org/uploads/publications/onekind_report_on_snaring_introduction.pdf lists many alternative, non-lethal methods of dealing with predators.
Do we really need a new souped-up snare to control foxes?