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80 | moore / the big cats Differing attitudes toward conservation and animal welfare around the world have led to the development of regulatory regimes ranging from outright bans on snares to more complex rules about their use. In Australia, for example, neck snares are illegal, but leg snares are permitted . In the United States, the trapping of animals for their fur, as well as for nuisance and damage control, is highly regulated by state wildlife agencies. A survey in 2007 found that snares (defined as “any trap using a cable to trap a furbearer”) were permitted in thirty-eight states and prohibited in nine. A number of European member states, including Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany , Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Malta, either prohibit the use of snares or have no tradition of using them. Switzerland, which is not an EU member state, also has a complete ban on the use of snares. Other European states strictly limit snaring, to comply with European conservation and habitats legislation , which restricts the use of nonselective traps. However , snares are still generally permitted in five member states (Belgium, France, Ireland, Latvia, and the United Kingdom). The use of snares in the United Kingdom is consistently controversial, with animal welfare campaigners pointing to continued evidence of extreme suffering and nontarget capture. Proponents of snaring argue that the traps are essential to protect quarry species (mainly free-living grouse and reared pheasant) for sport shooting (see Animals in Sport and Entertainment) and that rigorous predator control benefits biodiversity, although this is debatable. In Scotland, recent legislation on free-ranging animals has provided complex regulations intended to improve practice among gamekeepers. All snares must now be tagged with the user’s identification number, which is issued on completion of operator training. The use of snares against so-called exotic species, such as elephants and giraffes, as well as gorillas in one part of the world, causes horror, but elsewhere snares are claimed as useful management tools against predation and nuisance. But the point is that the suffering of the individual in the snare is the same, regardless of whether the animal is valued by society or labeled as a “pest.” Related articles: Animal protection in Africa; Animals used in research; The big cats; Conservation philosophy; De-snaring in Kenya; The ethics of killing free-living animals; Free-living chimpanzees; The fur trade; Legislation in the European Union; Perceptions of elephants; Primates worldwide Batcheller, Gordon, Summary of Trapping Regulations for Fur Harvesting in the United States, Furbearer Conservation Technical Work Group, 2007. Boddicker, L., “Snares for Predator Control,” in Marsh, R. E. (ed.), Proceedings Tenth Vertebrate Pest Conference, University of Nebraska, 1982. David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, “Desnaring Project,” available at http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/desnaring/index_new .asp. Iossa, G., Soulsbury, C. D., and Harris, S., “Mammal Trapping: A Review of Animal Welfare Standards of Killing and Restraining Traps,” Animal Welfare 16 (2007): 335–352. Kirkwood, James (ed.), Report of the Independent Working Group on Snaring, Department for the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs, 2005. Ohashi, G., and Matsuzawa, T., “Deactivation of Snares by Wild Chimpanzees,” Primates 52 (2011): 1–5. Rochlitz, I., Pearce, G., and Broom, D., “The Impact of Snares on Animal Welfare,” Report on Snaring, OneKind, 2010. Libby Anderson Focus on Species Worldwide The big cats Of the thirty-eight species of free-living cats left on this planet, the most endangered include the Andean mountain cat, cheetah, Iriomote cat, jaguar, kodkod, lion, snow leopard, Spanish lynx, and tiger and many of the subspecies of most of the other twenty-nine species. All the big cats are included in this list because their size, larger territorial range, loss of habitat, and apparent value as body parts have resulted in their reduction worldwide. Currently, for example, there may be fewer than 800 snow leopards and 4,200 tigers left in their natural state. All the members of the cat family have been persecuted since human beings evolved on our planet. Seen as a threat to life, as a source for clothing or body part jewelry, and as a source of raw materials for “medicines,” their numbers have been systematically depleted. Many have died simply as a result of competition with human beings for land or food. Habitat loss has caused many species to travel vast distances into unfamiliar terrain fox / coexisting with coyotes | 81 to find food, where hunters and poachers have found it easier to track them. Competition for prey species, also hunted by...

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