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Thread: Animal trap : Advice

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Nov 2010
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    221

    Default Animal trap : Advice

    There was a warning posted on the GAGB Facebook site yesterday when a cacher came into close proximity with an animal trap.

    Having found an illegal trap myself last week whilst surveying an area for a new series, I came to realise that the local Police were reluctant to act and, having done some research it is clear that it might be usueful for Geocachers to be able to identify the illegal traps/placement and have a few points of reference when reporting the matter to the authorities.

    Animal traps are subject to legislation, the Police and the RSPCA, (or RSPB in the case of birds) are the appropriate points of contact. You may also consider contacting a local vet in the case of a trapped animal requiring urgent attention.

    I would suggest that we are likely to walk past animal traps more often than we realise, and may well just regard the ones that we see as being a 'necessary evil' for land management, this isn't a drum banging campaign, just a post to raise awareness.

    Here are some links to websites that I found interesting and useful when trying to convince a Police Officer that an offence had been committed :

    http://www.onekind.org/resources/blo..._walkers_guideAlthough a blog article I found that the main post offers sound practical and reasoned advice.

    http://www.rspca.org.uk/utilities/fa...gory/Wildlife/
    The actual legislation from the RSPCA.

    http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/461A sound Police perspective, and the one which prompted my local Officer to follow up the report with an interview and caution the landowner.

    http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/En...rappingsnaringScottish info and legislation.

    http://www.nationalgamekeepers.org.u...ngTrapping.pdf The Game Keepers perspective.

    http://www.antisnaring.org.uk/traps/types-of-trapsThere are examples of traps here, it is included for this purpose only.

    http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/v_to_z/wildlife_offences/The Crown Prosecution lexicon of Wildlife Offences, very technical and wordy, but I will admit to finding sections of it very interesting, in a geeky kind of way.
    Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    This is a very good issue to raise but I would like to point out a couple of issues with the links:
    1) The onekind blog wrongly identifies some legal traps as illegal (e.g. the fenn trap over water is legally set) and has misinformation about how many animals some of the traps can catch in a few hours. Only last year I watched 20 crows enter a crow trap in a ten minute period. Those setting traps have to check them once every 24hrs but you have to remember it is possible for an animal to be trapped within a few minutes of the trap being set without anyone knowing about it. It is also common practice of animal rights groups to remove the tags from legal traps and then claim they are illegal traps which is why the writer of this blog uses the phrase "If it does not have this ID number then the cage operator may be breaking the law" not "they are breaking the law" as the title suggests.
    2) All but one of the traps shown on the antisnaring link are legal. I strongly believe it should be pointed out that the vast majority of traps are legal and are dangerous to touch so if you don't know what you are doing they should be left well alone. However I fully agree that unfortunatly there are a small minority of traps that are illegal and if you suspect a trap is illegal report it immediately to the local police and RSPCA.

    I have more than the average knowledge of both sides of trapping as I am an ex-farmworker and am now a serving police officer, my wife worked for the RSPCA for many years and my brother-in-law is a head gamekeeper. Personally I am not a fan of trapping but understand it is needed, and mostly legal.
    Last edited by N0hope; 7th May 2013 at 12:20 AM. Reason: grammer correction


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  3. #3

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    Mar 2013
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    Also, I would like to ask - was the cache in question on Facebook placed with the landowners permission? If it was why was the trap set so close to the cache and is the landowner being spoken to about this by GAGB? If it wasn't this is the fault of the CO and are they being talked to by the CAGB about their placement of the cache?


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  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    Most forces have a wildlife crime officer, and they would be the best people to speak to - As a serving officer myself, I would have no idea if a trap was legally set or not!

  5. #5

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    Thanks for the comments and input so far. Yes, I agree that there are some 'gaps' in accuracy and knowledge with the above links, hence the Police link and the CPS link. I can't match the knowledge of Nohope on this matter and would be interested to know of any other links. I have been retired from 'the job' for a couple of years now but am aware of Wildlife Crime Officers (the one in Notts was a desk jockey) and what you describe Clipper247 is why I got the response that I did from a local Officer. That's why I raise the matter here, in the hope that we can be a bit more vigilant, and we may be able to also help our landowners if they are having problems with activists if we know what to expect/look for.
    Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    I think the best information actually comes from the BASC (British Association for Shooting & Conservation) as they publish guidlines that interpret the law in a way that is easy to understand (i.e. translated from 'English Law' into English). They have two guides, one on trapping birds and one on trapping mammals, in PDF form at:
    http://www.basc.org.uk/en/codes-of-practice/index.cfm
    Most police officers don't have a clue about trapping as it is not part of standard training and never will be as it is a very small area of crime committed and a lot of forces are cutting the wildlife officer roles as the government cuts are hitting officer numbers hard, so I would always suggest if you honestly believe a trap to be illegal you should be contacting the RSPCA first, but don't expect a quick response or for them to get it right (they are very bias and political).

    However, I think the main point is the one raised by Northking - be aware that traps are out there and likely to be in holes and under things (a bit like caches!).

    I would also like the GAGB committee to officially comment on this thread.
    Last edited by N0hope; 8th May 2013 at 10:49 PM. Reason: correction of link


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