Important update: Snaring ban in Scotland

By Felix Meister, D.Phil, Advisor Scotland

On Tuesday 24th September, Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, Jim Fairlie informed Scottish Parliament that the ban on snares, which was introduced as part of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, will commence on Monday 25th November 2024. This means that, from this date, it will be an offence to set a snare in Scotland for the purpose of killing or restraining a wild animal.

Ross McLeod, GWCT Head of Policy in Scotland, will be meeting with Scottish Government this week to seek clarity on the ban. However, GWCT members are advised to remove all snares currently set or deactivated on site in advance of this date. As the ban does not extend to the possession of snares, it will not be necessary to destroy or hand in any snares. However, as current snaring legislation remains in place, we urge members to retain all records of past snaring activities until further notice.

The GWCT were involved in the development and trialing of the Humane Cable Restraint. We demonstrated its efficacy and humaneness in our research and gave evidence to the Scottish Government and to the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Committee to that effect. We deplore the loss of this vital tool for conservation and wildlife management.

In order to avoid similar bans in the future, it is now more important than ever that all remaining methods of legal predator control are carried out to highest standards of professionalism and animal welfare. Training in spring trapping and corvid trapping is now mandatory. The GWCT pioneered this kind of training and the current NatureScot syllabus has been developed with the GWCT using our existing material. Approved training courses will start this October, and places can still be booked here.

Moreover, in carrying out legal predator control, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to demonstrate adherence to best practice. The GWCT have developed the Best Practice with Proof initiative, which allows land managers to collect data on the ground, which are then evaluated in detailed annual reports. We also offer Predator Control Assessments as a bespoke external audit of all relevant predator control methods. More details about these services can be found here.

GWCT research has repeatedly demonstrated the benefits of legal humane predator control for game and wildlife. As an organisation, we remain committed to ensuring that this form of wildlife management has a future in Scotland.