Bolton Abbey's cat problem
One runner's shocking find reveals how "indiscriminate" snares can be
On 12th February 2021, runner Paul Carman stumbled on a grisly scene. A fox and a cat, laid next to each other, half-buried in snow, dead. And near the bodies a snare emerged from the ground. Carman was on land belonging to Bolton Abbey, a tourist destination in the Yorkshire Dales – and an area for grouse shooting.
Stumbling on the scene
Although he contacted Bolton Abbey directly about the bodies, Carman received no response. So on 20th February he posted photos to Facebook, saying:
Come for a nice walk at Bolton Abbey estate and spot the wildlife. (As long as your not a fox or domestic Cat!)
Two photos show a black cat and red fox next to each other, apparently placed by hand. A third photo shows a snare hanging over grass. Carman told The Citro that this snare was approximately four metres from the bodies.
The post went viral on social media and made local news on 23rd February, with both YorkshireLive and Yorkshire Post covering the story. Yorkshire Post described the scene as a stink pit, which uses rotting bodies to lure predatory animals into snares.
Responding to the outcry, Bolton Abbey estate told media that its land is classified as a special protection area (SPA), adding:
A key aim of the SPA is to restrict the predation of and disturbance to breeding birds caused by native and non-native predators. To support this aim, we legally control foxes and feral cats within the SPA.
Furthermore, it said gamekeepers operated snares within the law and used best practice endorsed by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
But Bob Berzins, from shoot monitoring group Moorland Monitors, referenced DEFRA’s guidelines when he told The Citro that Bolton Abbey’s claim is spurious:
Snare operators routinely breach the Snaring Code Of Practice and guidelines. Snares should not be used in extreme weather conditions, such as the snow on Barden Moor [where the bodies were found] on 12th Feb and domestic animals must be released immediately, not killed.
And the GWCT’s own guidelines also make this clear. Page six of its code of practice booklet states that one should “never set snares… If forecasted weather conditions are likely to cause poor welfare or prevent daily inspection”.
Cat tales
The public response to Carman’s Facebook post was marked by disgust and outrage. In the thread that followed, a comment by Andy Collins about the absence of a cat collar suggested that the cat’s presence was a particularly emotive factor in the incident. Bolton Abbey’s media response implied the cat was feral, but it’s impossible to be sure. Carman told Yorkshire Post that police said both bodies “had been removed” by the time they investigated the site.
Carman told YorkshireLIve that “he believed the cat was a domestic one as it was "well fed" and in "good condition".” And this led Berzins to suggest to the Citro that the estate may be playing fast and loose with terminology:
The runner who found the snares reported the cat looked well nourished and in good condition so most likely to be a domestic animal, not “feral” which is just a gamekeeper’s opinion. This is yet another example of the patronising attitude of grouse shooting estates.
“Immense pain and suffering”
The Citro asked Carman how he felt about Bolton Abbey estate’s response. In particular, whether he understood the ‘need’ for controlling feral cats on a shooting estate. He said:
Personally I can appreciate that if an animal is at the top of the food chain, it may need controlling if numbers get out hand. But this way of killing animals should have died out with ark, legal or not.
And, as Berzins told The Citro, the snaring method is so “indiscriminate” as to be a lurking menace in the countryside:
Snares are indiscriminate and cause immense pain and suffering. This is the reality of the use of these traps. Animals can die from strangulation and cats or hares are particularly vulnerable to the snare wire being lodged around the abdomen which causes internal bleeding and death – all this from a supposedly non-lethal trap.
Although snares are often set with the purpose of catching foxes, in practice badgers, hares and domestic pets are frequent victims.
One recent example of this was seen on the royal Sandringham estate where a domesticated dog “nearly froze to death” after they were snared. The National Anti Snaring Campaign lists many other similar incidents. And stories of humans caught by snares have also hit the news. For Moorland Monitors, the Bolton Abbey incident once again raises the question over the existential utility of the devices:
It’s worth noting that in this incident there appears to be no clear evidence that the cat themselves had been snared.
Strange timing
The Bolton Abbey story has one final frustrating layer. Carman told The Citro that the estate did eventually respond on 22nd February. He said the estate claimed they didn’t receive the email until the 19th but, as Carman noted, a police officer told him that:
when [the officer] spoke to the gamekeepers they were already aware of me emailing them.
The estate’s response came ten days after his initial email and a day before the story hit the media. Interpret the timing as you will.
-
Want to support The Citro? Click here to contribute.
-
Headline image via Paul Carman