Spring has sprung and Summer is getting underway. Many animals have spent months breeding, and many of their young will be starting to wander further from their home. Out in the countryside, HSA supporters are beginning to stumble across signs of wildlife persecution on shooting estates.
Season of persecution
This is the time of year when shooting estate gamekeepers, particularly on the grouse moors, ramp up their grim practices. Paid to eradicate undesirable species from shooting estates, ‘predator control’ is carried out to protect birds that undesirable humans will pay hundreds if not thousands of pounds to shoot. Gamekeepers will use snares to target areas animals will frequent; often close to watercourses or on paths through the undergrowth. These horrific sites must also be easy for keepers to access. Though these images were taken on moorland, the same logic applies anywhere which snares are deployed.
Snares, such as the ones in this article, are also often set around “stink pits” (piles of dead animals) are used as bait to attract unfortunate foxes and badgers. The animals which form a stink pit are often the victims of traps and bullets elsewhere on the estate. The pile of corvids at this particular site suggests Larsen and ladder traps may be found elsewhere. The dumping of dead animals is governed by strict regulations; local trading standards or other environmental enforcement bodies may be interested to hear about stink pits. Particularly if they are placed near watercourses, as this one was. Further footage of a gruesome stink pit can be seen here. https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/shocking-stink-pits-exposed-spotlight-on-shocklach-hall/
Scotland and Wales see sense
In England, though it is currently legal to snare foxes, snares are indiscriminate. ‘Non target’ species, such as badger, hare, deer, dogs and cats are regularly captured and harmed by snares and other traps. On the moorlands, endangered Mountain hare are also at risk of a long, lingering death, caused by panicked strangulation in these disgusting traps.
While pro shooting propaganda claims that snares are only used to ‘restrain’ an animal, while they wait hours for a gamekeeper to come and shoot them, the reality is that being caught in a snare is a brutal experience. Despite alleged best practice guidelines, the struggling animal will cause the wire snare to tighten around them causing lacerations and internal injuries. It’s no wonder that the Scottish and Welsh governments have now banned snaring, despite the desperate attempted rebranding of snares as ‘humane cable restraints’ by the shooting industry.
Routine cruelty
The reality is that traps and snares provide convenience and routine to a gamekeeper’s duties. Regulations say that snares must be checked daily; a task which may form a significant part of a keepers daily round. Without being able to litter shooting estates with brutal contraptions, keepers would need to do much more sitting around with guns, covering a smaller area at a time. Though, arguably, this would be more efficient in some ways, we aren’t arguing for one form of killing over another! Despite a ban on snaring in Wales, keepers on the Welsh Ruabon Moor estate were caught using snares in 2025. Showing that the shooters aren’t at all intending to give up their tools without a fight and demonstrating a need for boots on the ground!
Repeat offenders
The video and images in this report were sent in to the HSA from the notorious Moscar Estate in Derbyshire. Wildlife persecution is well documented on this estate on the websites of Moorland Monitors and Hunt Investigation Team. Notably, an ex gamekeeper was caught snaring badgers in summer 2020. Badgers are protected in legislation, therefore it is illegal to target them with snares.
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