I seriously thought snare traps had been made illegal to use.
But no.
As Mollie the Springer found out yesterday. Running around nose to the ground suddenly flipped on her back pivoting around her head/neck. Yep in a snare trap.

Self-locking snares are illegal, I think that one in the picture is a breakaway snare, which is legal.

Good resource here.

Unfortunately a panicked spaniel doesn’t understand the mechanism for release.
But yes I went away and read up, pretty barbaric method of killing the foxes that have a better food source because of the pheasants that are brought in to be blasted.

The gamekeeper (spoken with) is licensed and has GPS data on each trap but obviously doesn’t release that data.
There should be a stop on the cable run though.

Horrible.

Riding down a quad bike rut through the heather on a local moor was wondering what my foot/pedal kept catching on. Stopped to look and there were snares just like that set every few metres for about one hundred metres along the rut.

Aye, not nice at all. All to protect an income stream of alternate brutality. Can always tell when it’s shooting season in Yorkshire, the amount of birds splattered on the roads after they’ve been shot out of the air.

**** horrible things. There was a local animal rescue posting on Facebook of a fox that they needed to free fr one.

Wow, didn’t know this was a thing

Was does breakaway actually mean? a dog owner can loosen it off?

the amount of birds splattered on the roads after they’ve been shot out of the air.

Most of those splattered on the roads have been hit by cars because the keepers tend to feed them too close to the roads so that’s where they congregate. They do seem to have suicidal tendencies though when they see a car comming from the safety of the grass verge.

Horrible! And as a Spaniel owner, that’s quite concerning ☹

Quick snip with your cable cutters/pliers.
Chances of getting caught are tiny.
I wouldn’t usually advocate vandalism but in this case just do it.

Don’t tend to carry cable cutters on a dog walk!

I am confirmed bloody hungry arse and I hate this stuff. Why don’t they just shoot the foxes. They are very inquisitive and come close. Shooting is fast and relatively painless, and easy to discriminate. Plus a night out in the woods with a hot choccy and a rifle is top fun.
Also they probably have to shoot them after they have been snared, so they already have the cost of the rifle.
A gamekeeper told me that if you see the decimation in a pheasant pen if a fox gets in you wouldn’t hesitate to snare them, but this kind of false moral equivalance doesn’t wash, a fox is programmed to kill like that.

Yes a fox will get in and kill everything, and come back later.

I moved from a large town to the countryside 2 years ago. Have yet to actually see a fox since moving there, and I spend a lot of time hiking and biking out there. Huge contrast to town where they’d be sat on your driveway!

Yep, I dismantled a whole series of snares I found along a track in woodland near Gorple – attached to buried blocks, definitely landowner rather than poacher. I also make a point of triggering those horrible crushing ones on runways across drainage lines. They can **** right off with me not understanding their country ways.

They can **** right off with me not understanding their country ways.

Having grown up in the country this is just an excuse for being an arseholee. The country way is that you may need to kill things for work or economic reasons, but you can still do it humanely. The cruel people I knew as a kid were not well liked.

Huge contrast to town where they’d be sat on your driveway!

Difficult to use a rifle in town..

Bloody horrible. I hope your dog wasn’t injured, an yeah as others have said I’d definitely be collecting any of those I found while out and about for disposal.

That happened to my Springer too, fortunately I was able to release. Whole setup of snares, presumably scented and leading to a giant stink pit of dead grouse. They shoot so many they don’t what to do with them and chuck them in a big hole. To$$ers one and all.

has GPS data on each trap but obviously doesn’t release that data.

“Obviously” why? Concerns about vigilante removal?

If they’re laying stuff like that on open access land, shouldn’t there be warning signs for walkers / dog walkers? I’m pretty sure foxes can’t read signs (or GPS data).

Used by absolute ****s

I also make a point of triggering those horrible crushing ones on runways across drainage lines. They can **** right off with me not understanding their country ways.

A quick wallop between two of the stones from a wall does for those.
37 of my 40yrs lived in the countryside. This has **** all to do with ‘countryside ways’ it’s certainly not locals on the grouse shoots.
Oh no the gamekeeper might lose his job. Good. Let them go the same way as the slave traders

I’ve gone through a fair few of those.
Absolutely inhumane way of killing animals.

Really hope your dog is OK.

you can still do it humanely.

In what way is a snare humane? Are snared foxes pretty chilled?

Yeah she’s fine. But it was a proper jerk by the neck, flipped her paws in the air.

@Cougar yes they don’t want to say, even roughly, where traps are as they know folk will look for and rightly, imho, pull them.

Just for info, snares don’t kill, they hold the fox until the person setting it can come and shoot it or release by-catch. By law the snares must be checked at least once in 24 hours.

Controversial enough, but they are very strictly controlled, with many bits of legislation and codes of practice surrounding their use.

Controversial enough, but they are very strictly controlled, with many bits of legislation and codes of practice surrounding their use.

But not policed!

Hate to sound like a tosser, but if you’re on land where there are nesting birds at this time of year, the dog should really be on a lead. It isn’t about toffs and gamebirds, it’s about curlews, lapwing, skylarks, meadow pipits, and many many more.

But not policed!

Plenty of very active wildlife crime units in rural forces. Intelligence led, I know of several instances of unscrupulous keepers being investigated for similar offences.

Controversial enough, but they are very strictly controlled, with many bits of legislation and codes of practice surrounding their use.

Yeah. Right.

Hate to sound like a tosser, but if you’re on land where there are nesting birds at this time of year, the dog should really be on a lead. It isn’t about toffs and gamebirds, it’s about curlews, lapwing, skylarks, meadow pipits, and many many more.

Erm… where are the traps again? They aren’t setting them in nature reserves, they are on the moors, complete wildlife deserts.
Agree a dog should be on a lead near ground nesting birds but there just isn’t any wildlife on the moors, its just grouse and pheasant, everything else is persecuted out of existence, they are dead places, even compared to the sheep fields at the bottom of the hill

Yip, there’s an area about a mile away that is more open with grass and a pond area which has swans this time of year. We give that a body swerve due to ground nesting birds. The area we were in is Sitka with only pheasants ever risen by the dogs and above an open area where pheasants are set at daytime with them roosted down the hill. This is so the are driven back to nesting area over the guns.

Erm… where are the traps again? They aren’t setting them in nature reserves, they are on the moors, complete wildlife deserts.
Agree a dog should be on a lead near ground nesting birds but there just isn’t any wildlife on the moors, its just grouse and pheasant, everything else is persecuted out of existence, they are dead places, even compared to the sheep fields at the bottom of the hill

I walk my dog on some moorland near here. Yesterday I counted six snipe, two common sandpipers, two short-eared owls, six curlews, three lapwing, dozens of pipits, one wheatear, five skylarks,one cock-pheasant, several grouse (hears more than I saw) , three pied wagtails, various mallard, a kestrel, saw voles running through the whitegrass tussocks, one roe doe, several corvids including what might have been a raven. I found fox scat (or at least the dog did!) and scat from what was probably a small mustelid (I’m guessing stoat).

That part of the moor is leased by a shooting syndicate. They cut rather than burn the heather, although the whitegrass can get pretty high in places, and just before nesting season several acres were set on fire by what is suspected to have been a bbq or a petrol engines RC aircraft (its a popular flying spot)

I’ve never seen a snare or a trap. I’ve spoken with the wife of the syndicate captain who assures me they have a very light-touch approach to predator management, using rifles to shoot foxes occasionally. Their biggest problem is dog walkers. They don’t release any game birds on that moor.

Went for a run in same area last night and met AA woman walking her 4 dogs. She warned me to take care as one of her working cockers had been caught in a snare. I mentioned Mondays events and we Both agreed the traps are horrible things. As we were parting she said she’d be speaking with “our gamekeeper” about them. So hopefully at a minimum a warning to dog walkers that they are in use might be posted.

Agree a dog should be on a lead near ground nesting birds but there just isn’t any wildlife on the moor

This just isn’t true, as Scapegoat has demonstrated.

As ascapegoat has demonstrated on a moor where they don’t burn and don’t use traps.
There is **** all in the way of wildlife on those near me, the contrast is stark between the moors and even the immediately adjacent fields, and sheep fields aren’t renowned as wildlife hotshots.

I have spent 3 days riding over the monoculture intensive grouse moors of the eastern cairngorm. A true green desert devoid of wildlife

Snares and traps tho legal in theory are not in practice as they are NOT checked every 24 hours and also routinely used to kill raptors

This just isn’t true, as Scapegoat has demonstrated.

More accurately they have claimed.
Some moors still retain reasonable levels of wildlife but not the intensively managed grouse moors.

malv173

you can still do it humanely.

In what way is a snare humane? Are snared foxes pretty chilled?

Read my posts, humanely meant not using a snare, if you want to kill foxes the best way is a rifle used by someone who is trained.

In some respects they go along with escooters. Illegal versions in the wrong places should mean horrible conseqeunces for the users. In legal form in the right place then nothing to discuss. Your personal opinion is irrelevant. If you can prove illegal use on the land they have no right to be on and you have, then damn well snip away. If they are legal and you are not then why commit a crime.
Going by the usual uneducated responses above many people haven’t got a clue.Nothing wrong with responses but make sure that they are 100% factual and don’t let your personal view point interfere. It somewhat detracts from our wonderful modern society where we all have a right to an opinion.

.matt

You need to understand the depths of the criminal conspiracy on the grouse moors.

Plenty of facts available like 3 of the white tailed eagles introduced to the isle of wight hve been killed on grouse moors. The local mp leaned on the polce. Investigations dropped. Wildlife crime unit disbanded.

Or how a out the recent prosecution for using a larsen trap to kill a goshawk

30% of all eagles will be killed on grouse moors illegally

Its not a few bad apples. The entire thing is one huge criminal conspiracy