Bog Myrtle & Peat

I came across a huge variety of different snares when I sat my accreditation course last month, and wanting to find out more about some of the technology involved, I picked up a couple of GWCT designed snares last week. The GWCT have been great at researching alternatives and improvements to traditional snares in order to keep them relevant and progressive, and these snares are the culmination of several years of work.

At a first glance the snares look very complicated, but if you aren’t dazzled by bells and whistles, it becomes clear that these traps are very similar to their forebears. The only difference is that they include two simple components which not only make them selective, but which actively help the snare to satisfy its legal purpose of holding a fox in one place until it can be despatched.

The Relax-a-lock eye stops a fox from hurting itself on the wire, allowing the snare to sit in an uncomfortable but harmless loop around its neck. These simple little strips should be on every snare because they instantly eliminate the risk of suffering caused as a result of wire chafing and fraying. The breakaway loop is designed to snap when it’s pulled by a powerful badger, minimising the possibility of harming these ubiquitous non target species. If a badger does put his head through a snare, the wire loop will be broken and the lumbering oaf can waddle away from the scene without a backwards glance. After all, it’s far better to break a snare than break the law. This is clearly a huge step forward for a trap which is widely hated for its apparent inability to select appropriate victims.

Thanks to a variety of different advances in snare making design, the days of the snare which killed and maimed will soon be over. We now have snares which are capable of self-releasing non-target species, and which simply hold a fox in one place until it can be killed. Legislation (particularly in Scotland) is so rigorous that even the slightest deviation from the letter of the law is punishable by extensive fines and the potential for a reduction in agricultural subsidy. What’s more, while the governments of both England and Scotland flatters themselves with thinking that they have scared keepers into compliance with the threat of punishment, in many cases, the changes are being accepted by a keeping community that is increasingly aware of technology and self motivated enough deal with progress. As a result, snares have never been more humane, selective and efficient.

However, there is still a threat to snaring. These advanced snares are more than twice the price of legal but less well developed alternatives, so it is hard to see them being widely accepted with their current price tag. In addition, there is increasingly a feeling that even the most immaculately selective and benign snare would be rejected by governments which have been nagged into sickness by animal rights groups who refuse to accept that change has taken place.

After three years spent researching upland birds and moorland management, one thing is absolutely clear amongst all this technical wrangling surrounding snares. Like them or loathe them, they kill foxes and help to create an environment in which biodiversity flourishes. This has been shown in any number of independent studies and surveys. In the absence of any practical alternative, a ban on snares would be a shocking blow to all groundnesting birds, particularly black grouse.