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Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Stoater no more...Stoat in trap


Postby Max Tick » Sun Oct 12, 2014 8:41 pm

Recently photographed in Perthshire this upsetting picture of a stoat in a trap. I find it hard to believe that this is necessary.
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Trapped stoat.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby SecretSquirrel » Sun Oct 12, 2014 8:52 pm

Max Tick wrote:Recently photographed in Perthshire this upsetting picture of a stoat in a trap. I find it hard to believe that this is necessary.


I saw a lot of these traps when I was on the Lowther Hills. Thankfully the ones I saw were all empty. I passed a good few traps and also a pile of logs and cages ready to create more :(

I don't understand why such a barbaric practice is allowed. And all to stop the natural way of predator and prey so that some fat rich cat can shoot birds :(
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby tall-story » Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:28 pm

Well, here goes. If you had hens in your garden and one of these creatures got in then you would quickly realise why this "barbaric practice is allowed". They are one of the most successful but at the same time ruthless killers in the countryside!
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Dan1001 » Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:25 pm

I see these traps almost every time I go walking in the hills around Dufftown, Tomintoul and Grantown-on-Spey. I really don't see what purpose they serve. The traps are set miles from farms, I honestly think some people aren't happy unless they are killing some poor animal.

Seriously, what harm is a tiny wee Stoat doing miles away from anywhere? Pretty pathetic that people would want to set traps to kill them.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Caberfeidh » Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:03 pm

Dan1001 wrote:I really don't see what purpose they serve. The traps are set miles from farms, I honestly think some people aren't happy unless they are killing some poor animal....Seriously, what harm is a tiny wee Stoat doing miles away from anywhere?


They eat the ground-nesting birds, and their eggs and young, and also the young of hares. These creatures are the only way of getting protein from an otherwise unfarmable area.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby basscadet » Wed Dec 03, 2014 5:22 pm

I thought these traps were for mink?.. They were really trying to get the numbers of Mink down in Grampian, to get the water vole numbers up.. T'was a few years ago, and it certainly worked in Deeside :D
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Dan1001 » Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:33 pm

Caberfeidh wrote:
Dan1001 wrote:I really don't see what purpose they serve. The traps are set miles from farms, I honestly think some people aren't happy unless they are killing some poor animal....Seriously, what harm is a tiny wee Stoat doing miles away from anywhere?


They eat the ground-nesting birds, and their eggs and young, and also the young of hares. These creatures are the only way of getting protein from an otherwise unfarmable area.



and? Thats nature.

Does a hare or a bird deserve to live anymore than a stoat? Typical gamekeepers, they've got to be killing something, keeps them in a job.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Alteknacker » Thu Dec 18, 2014 2:24 am

tall-story wrote:Well, here goes. If you had hens in your garden and one of these creatures got in then you would quickly realise why this "barbaric practice is allowed". They are one of the most successful but at the same time ruthless killers in the countryside!


What is a "ruthless killer"? This epithet implies that animals have some kind of morality. The only animal to which this description can reasonably be applied is man - in the sense that man doesn't seem to have much in the way of morality.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Caberfeidh » Thu Dec 18, 2014 11:20 am

Alteknacker wrote:
tall-story wrote:Well, here goes. If you had hens in your garden and one of these creatures got in then you would quickly realise why this "barbaric practice is allowed". They are one of the most successful but at the same time ruthless killers in the countryside!


What is a "ruthless killer"? This epithet implies that animals have some kind of morality. The only animal to which this description can reasonably be applied is man - in the sense that man doesn't seem to have much in the way of
morality.


They kill everything, not just enough to eat. A passing man is unlikely to ravage your chickens. Also laying traps for people is likely to raise even more criticism than laying traps for mustelines.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Max Tick » Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:54 pm

I had a bullfinch nibbling at the buds on my apple tree today.
The apple tree is 4 years old and never produced an apples.
The bullfinch is obviously the culprit but I think the loss of apples is a price worth paying to have bullfinches around.
What price the sacrifice of some prey to enrich my walk with the sighting of the occasional stoat.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Martin 282 » Sun Jan 18, 2015 3:20 pm

As someone who kept & bred free range hens for many years I have to say stoats were no issue with me. A family of this now uncommon creature lived nearby, whilst a weasel lived 25m from the nearest run. A fox liked to sit & watch the hens but could not get through the mesh fence. The only predator that could scale the fence was a Pine marten - incidentally during the day as they are not nocturnal. The Martens did take a few, 4 or 5 out of 1000 over the years.
We have such an impoverish fauna because of human activity. Some people simply enjoy killing animals. If we left it up to those humans there would be nothing left - no otters as they eat fish, no Raptors as they might eat a pheasant that is reserved to be blasted out of existence by a "sportsman" etc etc.
The defence for killing the defenceless & natural is always the same- "if you kept hens" which is rubbish. Wild animals need more protection from the mindless. I know someone who urinates on traps in an effort to deter animals from entering them. Does anyone out there know if it would work.Maybe we could start a club - The Wee Wee Walkers.
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Caberfeidh » Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:37 am

Martin 282 wrote:As someone who kept & bred free range hens for many years I have to say stoats were no issue with me.


It is not hens out on the moors, it is grouse. And any other ground-nesting bird.
As for peeing on and around traps, yes, I think that would work. :shock:
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Re: Stoater no more...Stoat in trap

Postby Martin 282 » Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:20 pm

Thanks for that, Caberfeith, I am sure that someone will now keep up his recycling of beer in a good cause. :wink:
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