With your help we have made it abundantly clear that most people in Scotland want to see an end to snaring.

With the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission and British Veterinary Association agreeing, and the Scottish Government committed to considering the possibility of the ban, there has been reason for real hope.

Recently though, those who wish to continue using snares have been saying that ‘humane cable restraints’ are a new design which is less harmful and should continue to be allowed. If any of you watched the recent evidence session on the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, you would have heard this discussed.

We were told previously that any provision on snaring would come as part of this Bill, but when the Bill was published the documents said that this had been delayed until stage two. It seems that this is so the government can investigate the claims relating to new snare designs.

When this issue came up recently in opposition to a ban on snares in Wales the Minister, Lesley Griffiths, said: “To be very clear, a so-called humane cable restraint and a code-compliant snare are identical in every way, and have been in use since 2012.” We believe that the same is true here.

There is no design alteration or method of use that can make snares humane – the fundamentals of the method cause suffering. The Scottish Government must not miss this opportunity to ban snares.