Penny-pinching King Charles still ignoring advice by using cruel traps

Despite being made patron of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) in 2022, King Charles has chosen to ignore GWCT Advisors, Hugo Straker and Mike Swan by continuing to use cruel Fenn-type traps at Sandringham, Norfolk.

After the Duke of Edinburgh’s death, Charles took over the shoot at Sandringham and you might have expected the highest standards given his role at the GWCT – but it seems penny-pinching is set to embarrass those in receipt of his patronage.

We can reveal that as of July 2023, the King has dozens of Fenn-type traps at Sandringham that are not in full compliance with the law.

Fenn-type traps were removed from the Spring Traps Approval Order (STAO) in 2020 for stoat capture because they do not kill within the required time frame, and are prohibited because the UK is a signatory to the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards, that applies to fur bearing animals – which means the European stoat is protected from inhumane trapping.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust asked shooting estates to “demonstrate full compliance with the law by switching to new generation stoat traps”. Virtually all other shooting estates have stopped using Fenn-type traps with Sandringham being a notable exception, this despite previous controversy on the estate when a little owl was killed in a Fenn-type trap in 2020.