Welsh Government Ban on Snares and Glue Traps

Welsh Government Bans Snares and Glue Traps

In 2016 the National Anti Snaring Campaign and Jordi Casamitjana of LACS spoke at the Welsh Senedd Environmental Committee Meeting in Cardiff calling for a ban on snaring. The Committee decided to go down the Code of Practice route. NASC has subsequently made further submissions to show that the code is not working. The Welsh Governmant has announced that Wales will be the first country in the UK to introduce a complete ban on the use of snares.

A spokesman for NASC has visited the Welsh Senedd and given evidence to the Scrutiny Committee for the Agriculture (Wales) Bill, which if passed will ban snares and glue traps in Wales.

Milestones for this Bill include:

  • The public consultation on the general principles of the Bill closes 11th Novermber 2022 – as soon as possible all consultation responses will be published
  • The Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, will come into Committee on 16th November 2022 for a second session of questions, informed by all the evidence Members have received to date.
  • The Committee will then consider key issues and themes for reporting on the Bill, and then a draft report. These discussions are held in private – mid-December/January – again meeting minutes will note when agreement is reached on the report. Once agreed the Stage 1 report will be translated and laid before the Senedd – the reporting deadline is 27th January 2023.
  • The report will then be debated in Government time, most likely 2nd week of February.
  • If the motion to agree the general principles of the Bill passes at the end of that debate the Bill proceeds directly to Stage 2 the following day – this is the amending stage in Committee.
  • You can follow progress of the Bill here (where future meeting dates will be posted) and read more on the legislative process here.

For more information, visit the Welsh Government

Update: Arguments appear to be being accepted on snaring by Welsh Parliament!

The National Anti Snaring Campaign has presented evidence to the Welsh Parliament on snaring but also gave evidence on Glue Traps to the Senedd.

Unlike England where a dispensation for professional use of glue traps will be allowed, Wales looks like accepting a total ban on glue traps is the only way forward.
 
The Universities Federation on Animal Welfare has looked at rat “pest control” and found glue traps were the only method that caused universal “extreme suffering.” We were able to relay this evidence to the Senedd.
 
Minister’s response on snaring and glue traps in the 16 November ETRA meeting – you can see it here from 49 minutes onwards:

https://www.senedd.tv/Meeting/Archive/6ee6501e-8de6-48c7-90c2-bbd04698a015?autostart=True#