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A Voluntary Trap Approval scheme to end trap welfare inequality in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

SE Baker
SE Baker*
Affiliation:
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire OX13 5QL, UK
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Spring traps are widely used for killing small mammals in the UK. By UK law, most spring traps are required to meet welfare approval standards, but break-back traps for rats (Rattus norvegicus) and mice (Mus musculus), and all mole (Talpa europaea) traps, are exempt. I argue that these exemptions are unjustified and should be repealed. Given that this is unlikely to happen soon, I propose an alternative approach — a ‘Voluntary Trap Approval (VTA)’ scheme, which could drive the necessary change via ‘carrot’ rather than ‘stick’. Such a scheme might benefit the welfare of many thousands of animals each year.

Type
Letter
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 131 - 133
Copyright
© 2017 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

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