Animal rights campaigners are calling for a ban on snaring as a report revealed a “gruesome catalogue” of animal killing and suffering.
The League against Cruel Sports claimed it found “widespread bad practice” on Scottish estates during a four-year investigation.
It called for a complete ban on snaring and said the Scottish Government’s decision to introduce regulations on the practice was not enough to protect wildlife.
In February the government announced new controls to limit the use of snares and also reduce the unnecessary suffering of animals.
Scottish campaigns manager for the league, Louise Robertson, said: “The government’s decision not to ban snares was seriously mis-
guided.
“As this report shows, regulation has not worked in the past and will not work in the future.”
In its report, Blood on the Wire, the league claims it found widespread use of “brutal” snares, some of which breach industry codes of good practice.
At Manderston House in the Borders, undercover investigators allege they found snares attached to wooden dragpoles.
Dragpoles are pieces of wood or logs that are not fixed to the ground and an animal caught in a snare set on a dragpole can drag the snare away and not be found and dealt with humanely.
The estate’s owner, Lord Palmer, said he had a shooting tenant who was responsible for the management of the shoot.
He said: “As far as I’m aware everything that is being carried out with regard to vermin control is completely and utterly within the law.”
The tenant, Christian Korsten, made no comment.
On another estate investigators claim they found 16 mountain hares dead in snares this year, though the league understands the estate does not have a licence to kill hares.
It said the snares were not checked every 24 hours to release or humanely deal with the hares.
Instead rotting carcases were still attached to many, meaning the hares would have suffered a “slow, lingering death”.
Gin traps – heavy steel devices with razor-sharp teeth which were outlawed more than 30 years ago – were allegedly found in 2004.
They do not kill an- imals outright but hold them in place until they are found.
Investigators also claim they found piles of rotting animal carcases which it assumes were being used as bait to lure other animals towards nearby snares.
The league said its findings illustrate widespread bad practice on Scots shooting estates and illustrate why self-regulation, official codes of practice and legislation regulating snares, short of an outright ban, do not work.
The report states: “The new measures are simply a way of regulating cruelty because, as long as snares are legal, animals will be caught in them and will suffer horrific injuries, often resulting in a slow painful death.
“There is no way to make snares truly target-selective and enforcing regulations regarding frequency of checking is impossible.”