Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill - use of snares and powers of Scottish SPCA inspectors: consultation analysis

Executive summary

This report presents the findings from the analysis of responses to the Scottish Government’s consultation Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill: use of snares and powers of Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) inspectors, which ran from 22 August 2023 to 3 October 2023. In the consultation the Scottish Government sought to explore views on amending legislation protecting Scotland’s wildlife to:

• Ban the use of snares
• Extend powers for Scottish SPCA inspectors

Headline findings

• The consultation received a total of 5289 responses. Most of the closed questions in the consultation were answered by more than 97% of all respondents.

Snaring

• 70% of respondents agreed with proposals to ban the use of snares and other cable restraints.
• 71% of respondents did not want an exception to allow snaring for research purposes.
• 73% of respondents did not want any other exceptions for the use of snares.

Scottish SPCA powers

• 71 % of respondents agreed with proposals to extend the powers of the Scottish SPCA to investigate wildlife crime.
• 71% of respondents agreed with proposals for these powers to include glue trap offences.
• 66% of respondents agreed with proposals to place limitations and conditions on the extended powers of Scottish SPCA inspectors.