The Case for Snares
The Game Conservancy Trust
| Dr Mike Swan, Head of Education with The Game Conservancy Trust, an
independent wildlife conservation charity which researches game and
associated species and habitats. Mr Swan has been called as an independent
expert witness in a number of court cases involving snares I believe that snares are a humane way of catching foxes. The Game
Conservancy Trust has done a lot of research into foxes and when we need
to catch them for radio tracking studies we use snares.
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"I suffer from acute and incurable melophilia
...
a rare and delightful ailment from which I am thankful that I can never be
healed ...
The only symptom is a deep affection for badgers." |
| Phil Drabble |
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We recently went to Germany to examine the way they catch predatory
mammals. They told us that, although snares are illegal there, they use
them under licence for any research that involves catching foxes and
releasing them unharmed.
Modern snares are designed with a stop so that when an animal is
caught, the loop stops tightening and the creature is not throttled. I
think it is important to stress that the role of the snare is to hold the
target animal fast without harming it.
Many people mistakenly believe that snares are designed to kill the
animal by strangulation.
When a gamekeeper has caught the predatory animal which he is targeting
he can remove it and kill it humanely, but non-targets can be released
unharmed.
I use free-running snares in game management projects in which I am
involved and I feel that, used correctly and checked regularly, they are a
very effective and humane method of predator control with minimum risk to
other wildlife.
The Gamekeepers' View
Charles Nodder, national spokesman for the National Gamekeepers'
Organisation which advocates the use of snares as an effective way of
tackling the problems caused by foxes in particular
Country people know that fox numbers have to be kept under control.
They are what scientists call generalist predators, in other words, they
take whatever is going and they often kill more than they need to eat.
Foxes are recognised as pests in the Agriculture Act. Their increasing
numbers have been partly responsible for the decline in wild birds such as
red grouse, grey partridge, lapwings and stone curlews.
No gamekeeper wants to kill every last fox, but we have to keep their
numbers in check. The control techniques available to gamekeepers have now
become restricted to the point where only two realistic options remain -
shooting and snaring.
Shooting is effective and humane where a rifle can be used safely, but
it can take many nights of waiting up to see, let alone get a safe shot
at, a marauding fox.
Snares, on the other hand, are working for the gamekeeper 24 hours a
day. The fox snare is a free-running wire loop set in a known fox run and
designed to catch and hold the fox unharmed.
Scientists use snares to catch foxes so they can put radios on them,
even scientists paid by the main anti-hunting organisations. The
gamekeeper must inspect his snares by law every day, although many do so
more often. If he finds a captive fox, he will shoot it.
Because the snare is a holding device, animals caught accidentally can
be released unharmed. Snares set inexpertly do very occasionally harm the
animals that they catch, and it is easy for opponents to create horror
stories out of such isolated incidents. But all means of pest control have
their down sides - none is ideal.
The important thing is that they are used only when and where necessary
and by experts. Gamekeepers know that they need snares and they know how
to use them properly.
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