Shortcast #62 Charlie Moores | Ban Snares

Off the Leash

A shortcast by Charlie Moores about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use of free-running snares illegal.
"If you’re a certain age (and I am) you may remember how snares were often depicted as homemade devices, something a poacher in a TV programme might make from a bit of string to catch a rabbit for his dinner perhaps We never saw how the animal was killed once it had been snared of course – that might have upset us as we sat down to eat a lamb’s leg or a chicken’s breast muscles – but snares themselves seemed relatively ‘harmless’, a bit ad hoc, something that most of us probably assumed disappeared along with black and white televisions, panda cars, red telephone boxes, and the pick and mix counter at Woolworths.
But snares haven’t disappeared. Far from it. They are actually being used on an industrial scale. They’re probably being used in a field or a wood near you right now...
And of course they’re not made from plant fibres and hazel twigs anymore – they’re made from thin steel wire. Staved to the ground. Set very deliberately along runs or around stink pits, the stench of rotting flesh from previously snared animals drawing more animals to more snares. They’re cheap to buy, easy to use, light to carry, and quickly replaced if you can’t quite remember where you left them. They’re basically a simple, low-skilled way to kill or maim or injure wildlife.
And having said all of that, bizarrely, here in the UK anyway, they’re legal to use. "

• Animal Aid petition Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022)