Trail Hunting and Snares to Be Banned Under New Animal Welfare Strategy
Today (Monday, 22 December), the Labour government announced plans to ban trail hunting and snare traps in England and Wales by 2030.
The measures are part of the newly published National Animal Welfare Strategy, which sets out policy priorities to improve the treatment of animals in the UK.
PETA celebrates the long-overdue proposed crackdown on the horrific bloodsport of fox hunting and an end to cruel snare traps. Here’s what these bans will mean for animals.
Trail Hunting Is a Smokescreen
The trail hunting façade began after hunting with hounds was made illegal by the Hunting Act in 2004. During this activity, hunters spray a cloth with an artificial scent and drag it near foxes’ habitats. If the dogs, while following the artificial scent, chase and kill a fox, the hunters can claim it was an accident and therefore escape punishment. Often, they deliberately conduct trail hunts in ways that make it very likely such “accidents” will occur.
Snare Traps Cause Long and Painful Deaths
The ban on snare traps will spare animals, such as foxes and rabbits, from slow and painful deaths. Snare traps are long metal wires that act as a lasso to kill animals they catch, tightening as they struggle against them. Animals will often be trapped in them for days before dying of dehydration. Banning them is a significant and long-overdue move.
More Must Be Done to Protect Animals
While the National Animal Welfare Strategy has taken some important steps to help animals, actions speak louder than words, and the government must now deliver on these promises, without delay. It must also recognise that more can, and must be, done to help animals in Britain.
Banning foie gras imports into the UK, for example, would end the paradox of being able to purchase this product, even though producing the ‘food’ in the country is illegal because of the horrific cruelty it entails. Foie gras refers to the enlarged, diseased liver of a goose or duck. The animals are kept in cages and force-fed grain by having a tube shoved down their throats several times a day. The livers swell up to 10 times their natural size, and birds spend their lives in unimaginable pain.
Likewise, the government must also prioritise banning fur sales and imports. Mink, raccoon dogs, foxes, and chinchillas are kept in foul-smelling wire cages that are stacked on top of each other. They’re locked up for their entire lives – with no freedom to jump, play, run, or do anything that comes naturally to them. Animals are driven to insanity on fur farms, and self-mutilation and cannibalism are widespread. Fur farming has rightly been banned in the UK for decades, and if a product is too cruel to make in the UK, it should also be too cruel to buy and sell in the UK.
How You Can Help Animals Today
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