An international plan to make beaver trapping more humane is to have a knock-on effect to UK stoat traps.
Bureaucrats started work 20 years ago on the agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS) between the European Union, Russia, Canada and the USA. From 2008 to 2013, civil servants beavered away testing traps, but realised that five years was not long enough, so extended the tests until 2016.
With Britain now leaving the EU, a DEFRA-led ‘technical working group’ will continue the good work, and will impose its findings in 2018. BASC is represented on this group and is also financially contributing towards the testing of new traps.
