Indiscriminate snares

Published on Thursday 14 February 2008 21:07

Drew Ainslie makes a number of inaccurate comments regarding the use of snares (Platform, 7 February).

If snares were really so important for protecting ground-nesting birds, perhaps he could explain why the RSPB does not see the need to use snares on any of its 130,000 hectares of reserves. The reality is that gamekeepers' primary reason for wanting to continue using snares is to try to protect the artificially high numbers of game birds for "sport" shooting.

Snares are indiscriminate traps. Not only do they catch their target "pests" such as foxes and rabbits but they also catch other wild animals, including protected species such as otters, mountain hares and badgers. A report released by the Scottish SPCA showed that of 269 animals reported as having been caught in snares only 23 per cent were "pests" such as foxes and rabbits. Companion animals such as cats and dogs accounted for 17 per cent of the total.

ROSS MINETT, Advocates for Animals, Queensferry Street, Edinburgh