Arundel Castle Protest March

Location: Arundel Castle, West Sussex, BN18 9AB

Sunday 19th September 2010

National Anti-Snaring Campaign supporters will be holding a protest and march through Arundel starting at Arundel Castle following grave concerns for wildlife due to the estate’s refusal to stop setting snares despite evidence that badgers are being caught in snares set for foxes on the estate.

Last summer Badger Trust West Sussex wrote to the Duke of Norfolk, alerting him to evidence that a badger had been snared just south of the South Downs Way on Norfolk estate land. This incident was discovered after a dog walker alerted Trust members to the snares when her dog had run off. Badger hairs and a vast disturbance around a metal pole used to anchor the snare were found.

Correspondence was ignored, but as snares and poles were all removed, it seemed that commonsense had prevailed.  However, the snares have returned this summer over a large area of the Norfolk Estate where intensive predator control is taking place due to all out efforts to increase wild “grey partridge” for game shooting.

There is no hope for our wildlife when snares litter the South Downs National Park. The neighbouring Goodwood and Cowdray estates have both voluntarily stopped all snare use following various badger deaths in snares, but the Duke of Norfolk is increasing their use in order to allow grey partridges to breed for shooting purposes. The snares are anchored to metal poles, a method promoted as ‘kill poles’ in the USA because a struggling animal wraps itself around the snare with fatal consequences.”

As well as snares, dozens of Fenn Mk4 traps are set in field margins and we have found rabbits still alive because the traps are only legal for smaller animals.

As well as protests, we are going to challenge the huge conservation grants the estate receives from public money.