A North Yorkshire gamekeeper has pleaded guilty to setting an illegal pole-trap, contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, following evidence obtained by the League Against Cruel Sports and RSPB.
Ryan Christopher Waite admitted to two charges related to setting a pole-trap, consisting of a spring-trap on a tree stump on the Swinton Estate, near Healey, North Yorkshire, between May and June 2013, at Harrogate Magistrates Court on December 10 2013.
During a Newton hearing at Harrogate Magistrates Court today, to establish the facts of the case, magistrates deemed intent was not to catch birds of prey but rather reckless intent when catching squirrels on the shooting estate. Cobblers, if I may say so. Waite was clearly expecting to catch a bird of prey. He is a gamekeeper on a shooting estate....
Mr Waite was fined £250 and ordered to pay £105 in costs. The trap is to be forfeited and destroyed. (What is to stop him getting another?)
Pole-traps have been illegal since 1904. The devices were and still are typically used by gamekeepers near to game-rearing pens to trap birds of prey perceived to be predators. When a bird lands on the trap, usually nailed to a post, the spring will snap shut the jaws of the trap around the bird’s legs. Unable to fly away the severely injured bird will be left to suffer a long and agonising death. That’s what people like Waite use them for....
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