Call for ban on steel jaw traps

Call for ban on steel jaw traps

By Kate Shannon

On November 13, National Anti-Steel Jaw Trap Day, Animal Rescue called for a total ban on traps and snares in Australia. Such a ban exists in 68 other countries.

Current laws in Australia are totally inadequate to stop the use of traps and snares. In Tasmania, the new Animal Welfare Act bans the setting and placing of steel jaw traps and snares. But the act does not ban the selling or possession of these traps, explains Jenny Sielhorst, president of Animal Rescue.

"A person in Tasmania can only be prosecuted if they are actually caught setting the trap. This is, of course, highly unlikely", says Sielhorst. "Even if traps are found set on someone's property, the landowner cannot be prosecuted." The act also allows ministerial exemptions.

Animal Rescue highlights the brutality of traps, which cause a lingering death to animals caught in them. Some animals in desperation frantically bite off their own limbs. Others starve to death in traps long since forgotten or, if found, are shot or bludgeoned to death.

Many of the traps' victims are native animals. In the cities, traps are set for domestic animals to protect aviaries, lofts and gardens. Sielhorst argues, "There is no use of these cruel and barbaric traps that is defensible."

From GLW issue 123