What's Wrong With Snaring?

Although their purpose is to immobilise predators, most snares cause extreme suffering to animals and often a painful, lingering death. The League campaigns to help protect animals from this fate.

Animals caught in snares suffer huge stress and can sustain horrific injuries. In their desperate bid to escape, they can be disembowelled by the wire, wrench bones out of sockets and even chew through their own limbs. A survey of vets, wildlife crime officers and Scottish SPCA Inspectors by the Scottish SPCA published in November 2007, found 90% believed that animals caught in snares had suffered.

Legal snares (known as free-running snares) are not intended to kill immediately, so animals can be trapped and suffering for hours, even days, before whoever set the trap returns to put them out of their misery.

Snares are used mainly on shooting estates to protect game birds, reared for shooting. Extrapolations from shooting industry figures show that over 12,000 animals are wiped out every day to protect shooting interests.  Thousands of innocent animals suffer for this blood sport.

Snaring is indiscriminate. It is not possible to control which animals will be caught in a snare. Pets, especially cats, also fall victim to snares. Dogs, badgers, otters, hares, deer, and livestock have suffered terrible injuries or been killed by snares.  The IWGS (Independent Working Group on Snares) 2005 report estimates 21-69% of victims are non-target species and concludes it is difficult to reduce it to less than 40%.

Snaring has been banned in most of Europe but is still legal in the UK.