Shooting UK is your complete shooting resource. From gun reviews to shotgun licence and firearms certificate information, to clay pigeon shooting, game shooting, shooting lessons and gundog training.
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
League's latest investigation focuses on snares once more, but shooters question the facts and figures
Shooters have called into question the accuracy of the latest report by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), which attacks the use of snares on shoots. The report, entitled The silent killer: Can the code of practice stop cruelty?, claims to have observed 68 estates in the UK and discovered 78 per cent of those using snares to be disregarding the DEFRA code of good practice.
The code was put together by the Independent Working Group on Snares and is intended to offer guidelines to keepers and land managers as to how to use these essential tools. In its recent document, LACS states that sections of the code are being ignored and animals are suffering as a result.
LACS’s “undercover” researchers have visited, without permission, a number of shoots named in the report. One report based on a shoot in Northumberland states that, for the casual onlooker, the scene is typical of this part of northern England, but closer inspection of the estate reveals a large number of snares attached to drag poles, trees and fences.
LACS has included a copy of the report in a letter to MPs, urging them to write to DEFRA minister Barry Gardiner and put their name on an early-day motion calling to ban all snares.
A number of shoots in Cumbria were also targeted by the League. ST spoke to a keeper at one of the shoots. He preferred not to be named, but said: “The snares we use are up to DEFRA standards. When the season starts, we lock all the snares up apart from those in a wooded area by a duck pond. Last year we saw some tracks as if someone had been looking at the snares, but they didn’t touch anything.
All the keepers in this area have been on a Game Conservancy Trust snaring course and passed. I was with them all. We did the course in case of something like this, and we have all been trained in the correct ways to set snares.” The keeper continued: “There’s never a day that goes by when we aren’t on the ground, so snares are checked every day. Whoever was looking around must have been in breech of the countryside code as all our snares are set in woods. Shoots are increasingly under the spotlight and we make certain all our snaring activities are totally by the book.”
The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) pointed out that most of the infringements alleged by LACS were, in fact, to do with setting snares on drag poles rather than fixed anchors. An NGO spokesman said: “DEFRA’s code does not actually ban drag poles. It says that fixed anchors are best and that where drag poles are used instead, there needs to be a special justification for their use. LACS didn’t ask the estates for their justification, maybe because their self-appointed inspectors entered private land without permission. Therefore, how can they be certain that the DEFRA code has been broken? They are casting a slur on these estates, which may be justified in considering libel proceedings.”
BASC questioned figures in the report and its director of communications, Christopher Graffius, told ST: “This report simply doesn’t have the evidence to support its claims. The numbers it shows don’t add up. LACS claims that only 23 out of 68 estates were reported to be using snares. Of those 23, it claims that 18 were breaching the code. Going on these figures it is very surprising to see that 45 estates visited by LACS were not reported to be using snares. It could be presumed that these 45 estates are obeying the code, and it’s actually a tribute to the effect it’s having. In other words, LACS’s calculations are wrong and expressed in the partisan way that you’d expect. Nowhere in this report is there any claim that the snares it observed are in breach of the law. The notion this report unveils law breaking on a massive scale is not true. It says exactly the opposite. It showed the majority were observing the code and that no-one was using illegal snares. We all know LACS has a habit to see what it wants to see, often things that aren’t there. In its previous report about snaring, what it claimed was an illegal snare turned out to be a rusty old piece of wire from a pheasant pen. This report couldn’t have been written without a massive breaking of the law of trespass. Nevertheless, the shooting community has made a concerted effort to get its snaring practice right following the publication of the code.”
Christopher Price, from the CLA, told ST: “Snares are designed for restraining, not killing the target species and their use is already heavily regulated. We support the comments of Jim Knight, the previous minister responsible, when he said that snares are needed when other methods of pest control are ineffective or impractical.”
Blaser Professional R93 rifle review: This Blaser Professional R93 rif... Read more
A recent GWCT conference has highlighted how parasite numbers are crip... Read more
Don't miss this week's issue (on sale Wednesday 16th May). FREE PRIZE DRAW: Win a Browning T-bolt.22 and Winchester ammo. Graham Downing gives his tips on where to find the best foreign sport! For all this and a whole lot more buy your copy today!
Save up to 31% on a subscription to Shooting Times & Country Magazine, subscribe today and perfect gift this Christmas.
Comments