Off the Leash - Shortcast #62 Charlie Moores | Ban Snares

Shortcast #62 Charlie Moores | Ban Snares

01/10/22 • 11 min

A shortcast by Charlie Moores about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use of free-running snares illegal.
"If you’re a certain age (and I am) you may remember how snares were often depicted as homemade devices, something a poacher in a TV programme might make from a bit of string to catch a rabbit for his dinner perhaps We never saw how the animal was killed once it had been snared of course – that might have upset us as we sat down to eat a lamb’s leg or a chicken’s breast muscles – but snares themselves seemed relatively ‘harmless’, a bit ad hoc, something that most of us probably assumed disappeared along with black and white televisions, panda cars, red telephone boxes, and the pick and mix counter at Woolworths.
But snares haven’t disappeared. Far from it. They are actually being used on an industrial scale. They’re probably being used in a field or a wood near you right now...
And of course they’re not made from plant fibres and hazel twigs anymore – they’re made from thin steel wire. Staved to the ground. Set very deliberately along runs or around stink pits, the stench of rotting flesh from previously snared animals drawing more animals to more snares. They’re cheap to buy, easy to use, light to carry, and quickly replaced if you can’t quite remember where you left them. They’re basically a simple, low-skilled way to kill or maim or injure wildlife.
And having said all of that, bizarrely, here in the UK anyway, they’re legal to use. "

Animal Aid petition Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022)

Animal Aid petition Make the use of free-running snares illegal for trapping wildlife (Deadline 9th May 2022)

Previous Episode

Interview #15 South London Hunt Sabs | Sabbing 2.0

TW: NO graphic details but very occasional use of strong language.
Charlie Moores talks with two exceptionally inspirational animal rights activists, Jake and Saffron from South London Hunt Sabs - a group that just a year after it was launched seems to be all over social media and, in the well-worn cliche, punching far above its weight.
The discussion took place just off the M25 in the car park of a well-known coffee company, and it quickly became obvious that these two individuals are not only eloquent and highly committed but balance and bounce off each other really well. The interview takes in hunts, animal culls, biased policing, and the behaviour of hunt followers but the answer to Charlie's first question asking how the group's message had spread so far in such a short time, set the tone for what was an enjoyable and uplifting conversation....

South London Hunt Sabs Facebook page and Twitter feed

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Shortcast #63 Bob Berzins | Ban Snares

A shortcast by author and campaigner Bob Berzins about snares - part of Off the Leash's series of shortcasts supporting Animal Aid’s petition to make the use of free-running snares illegal.
Bob lives on the edge of the Peak District National park, an area blighted by wildlife crime and snares. He’s worked with activists and wildlife charities, and spoken to police officers and crime commissioners in an effort to improve the plight of wildlife in the Park. He has also trained and worked as a counsellor which has helped him bring psychological depth to his excellent first novel ‘Snared’, a few pages of which Bob reads at the end of this recording.