Snaring debate just won't go away
Written by
on 05 November, 2010 : 09:30
The Environment Minister's attempts to defend the Scottish Government's snaring policy in Holyrood this week certainly made for interesting listening. Roseanna Cunningham was giving oral evidence to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee on the the forthcoming Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill which seeks to replace the Snares (Scotland) Order 2010 with a raft of measures to regulate the use of snares. This is just a small part of the overall consolidation Bill which also deals with species licensing and deer manangement among other things.
The Scottish Government has come under criticism for ignoring overwhelming public and political support for a ban on snares and instead bowing to pressure from the shooting lobby. Some of the arguments presented by Ms Cunningham to the Committee were laughable as she tried to insist animal welfare was being given consideration as they moved to 'professionalise' the snaring industry. She began by reminding the Committee that the truth is 'we kill animals all the time' and the only people who could take the 'moral high ground' on the snaring issue were vegetarians. I'm not quite sure how she reached that conclusion, is she implying that standards in our meat industry are so poor that animals slaughtered for meat production are made to suffer in the same way as those trapped and killed in snares?
Ms Cunningham talked about new research being carried out to improve the workability of a snare and new technology to lessen animal suffering but how you can improve the technoloby of a length of wire set in such a way that it garotts its victims is beyond me. It was certainly clear from the evidence that the Government is not prepared to back down on its stance and accept that only a ban on these primitive, cruel traps will stop animals suffering immeasureable cruelty. However, on a postive note the Minister did concede that this issue 'will never go away' which is exactly right. The League will be pushing this campaign vigerously through all stages of the Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill and into 2011 with the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May. We won't give up on this until the use of all snares is illegal in Scotland.