The Scottish Government has announced that it intends to bring forward amendments to the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill to ban the use of snares in Scotland.
We are naturally very disappointed with the announcement to ban all snares, including the AIHTS-approved humane cable restraints (HCRs) which GWCT has invested many thousands of hours developing in response to welfare concerns.
We note that the Scottish Government draws on a report from the British Veterinary Association and British Veterinary Zoological Society to support its position to ban the use of snares. It is unfortunate that there is no commentary within the report on evaluation of HCRs nor that in identifying alternatives to the acknowledged need for predator control, these must be assessed on the same welfare evaluation criteria as restraints.
Where we feel a sense of balance has been lost in this decision is in responding to the biodiversity crisis. Time and again, our research has demonstrated that predator control can transform the fortunes of vulnerable ground-nesting birds such as Curlew and Lapwing, most of which are red and amber-listed. Protecting and recovering these birds will now become much harder unless provision is made to retain the use of the humane cable restraint under licence arrangements.
The Scottish Government has announced that there will be a consultation on prohibiting all snares. GWCT will be responding to this and will make our submission available to members who wish to draw on the evidence we set out in drafting their own responses.