SNARES
Snares have been used for thousands of years to trap animals. A fairly simple but inherently cruel design, snares are essentially a loop set along a trail or suspended from a branch or small tree which catches an animal by the neck or leg as they walk into it. As the animal continues to move forward or struggles to get free, the loop pulls tight. If the snare is strong enough (so doesn’t snap) or can’t be dragged away, the animal will suffocate, their neck will dislocate, or they will be held where they were caught and then beaten to death or shot.
Snares – mostly now made from thin steel wire rather than plant fibres – are still widely used around the world. They’re cheap to make, easy to use, light to carry, quickly replaced, and far quieter than a rifle (so won’t alert police, or forest or park rangers, when committing wildlife crime).
They are basically a low-cost, low-skilled way to kill (or maim/injure) wildlife.
Stink pits
Snares and the Law
Snares Petition
Protect the Wild wants a full ban on snares
Now that we know about snares, we need to talk to family and friends about them.
- Explain that snares are banned across most of Europe but are still allowed in parts of the UK because the shooting industry wants them
- Explain that the shooting industry is partly responsible for creating ‘the problem’ they claim needs ‘managing’ with snares. The industry actually supports predator populations by releasing millions of birds in to the countryside every year.
- That the so-called ‘welfare considerations’ put in place by the shooting industry don’t reflect real-life scenarios and certainly not how wild animals behave when they’re caught in traps.
