Animal welfare groups and academics have joined forces to write to Boris Johnson and George Eustice urging them to take immediate action to ban cruel snares .
These thin wire nooses are typically set to catch foxes or rabbits but frequently catch cats, dogs, badgers and other unintended victims.
Some victims have been known to “chew off their limbs in order to escape.”
The letter, signed by groups including the RSPCA, Dogs Trust, Cats Protection, Peta and Animal Aid, who organised the collective action, calls for a ban on the manufacture, sale, possession and use of all snares immediately.
They say animals caught can, and do, suffer immense stress, terrible physical injury and death.
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The letter reads: “Snares, designed to catch animals around the leg or neck, and hold them until they are killed by a human, can easily cut into an animal’s skin.
"As they struggle, due to pain or panic, the wire can cut through deeper tissues, muscle and bone.
"Animals have been known to try to chew off their limbs in order to escape.
“Snares may catch and kill lactating mothers, meaning that her young are left to starve to death.
Companion animals, such as cats and dogs, and farmed animals such as sheep and lambs, have all been recorded being caught in snares – some of them dying as a result.”
The letter comes after using “appallingly cruel” glue traps to catch mice and rats could become illegal under a new law designed to protect cats and birds.
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The Government has backed a Bill to ban the traps, which it says can cause “immense suffering” to mice and rats and can ensnare cats, hedgehogs and bats.
Jade Emery, Wildlife Campaigner for Animal Aid, said: “We call on the Prime Minister and his Minster to prove their commitment to animal welfare by banning snares immediately.
"Snares are notoriously cruel and indiscriminate - they frequently kill and cause severe injuries to any animal who becomes trapped.
“Animals suffer terrible, sometimes fatal injuries, struggling to escape.
They have been known to try to bite off their own limbs in their desperation to escape.
"Such devices have no place in the modern world and should be banned.”
