A BAN on snaring must go to public consultation after a review ordered by the Scottish Government recommended changes to the law, campaigners say.
A paper published yesterday by Scottish Natural Heritage found more than 1,500 snare operators were registered with Police Scotland last November, with the number of prosecution reports on snaring down from nine in 2012 to just one last year.
The review called for further improvements to the legislation including bans for those convicted of a snaring offence from using the traps.
However, animal charities say the Holyrood-ordered review was a “wasted opportunity” as it failed to consider an outright ban. The League Against Cruel Sports Scotland and OneKind now want the issue to be taken to the public.
Robbie Marsland, director of the League Against Cruel Sports, Scotland, said: “Since the snaring regulations were introduced over five years ago, animals have continued to endure needless suffering as a result of cruel and indiscriminate traps.
“This review was never going to resolve the problem, it was, sadly, a wasted opportunity.
“Regulations are not a workable solution for something as crude and barbaric as a snare. In short, you can’t regulate cruelty.
“We will now step up our campaign to convince the Scottish Government to take the common-sense approach and ban the manufacture, sale, possession and use of all snares.”
Harry Huyton, director of OneKind, added: “The review was an opportunity to assess whether the new snaring regulations had ended the suffering and indiscriminate capture caused by snares. Yet it was destined to fail from day one due to a bizarre and inadequate remit.”
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “We will consider the proposed changes to legislation and ask Scottish Natural Heritage to take forward work to revise the Code of Practice in line with the recommendations in the review.”
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