Scottish Animal Welfare Commission - trapping of terrestrial wild mammals using snares: position paper

Appendix

Recent Scottish SPCA cases

The Scottish SPCA has notified SAWC that, in the last 24 months, it has dealt with 213 tagged snares found as a result of 22 separate incidents. These have included search warrants on estates as well as calls from the public reporting snared animals.

Of those snares that had tags, only 53 were found to be set legally, meaning that 75% of tagged snares were found to be set illegally (having the potential to wholly or partially suspend).

The numbers below relate to the 53 legally set and tagged snares. These numbers represent animals found when the incidents were investigated and the outcome for those animals:

• 7 were found dead on arrival
• 7 were found to be alive but 6 of those had suffered injuries
• 3 of those animals who had sustained injuries due to being snared were euthanased

The Scottish SPCA has supplied photographs of animals caught in free-running snares. These show the consequences of the use of snares set with stops according to the current legislation. The fox was caught by the mouth. The badger was caught in a tagged legal snare that was positioned illegally. No owner was traced.