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

Ethical principles of wildlife management

SAWC notes the view of the WAWC that:

‘Wildlife control should be made subject to ethical principles, such as the international consensus principles for ethical wildlife control (24). These state that human behaviours should first be modified and then, if wildlife control is considered necessary, it should be justified with evidence that substantial harm is being caused to people, property, livelihoods, ecosystems, and/or other animals. Where lethal or non-lethal control is still considered to be needed, it must be carried out using recognised methods with the lowest overall welfare impact.’

While generally supportive of the ethical principles, in the case of snaring, SAWC believes that the animal welfare impacts outlined in section 2 above would negate the value of assessing snaring as a management technique to be applied to sentient wild mammals.