TRADER, NOT FARMFR • it is clear that the steel
trap, as misused in the West, is a trade weapon, not a farmer's protection. It is perhaps a little quicker, simpler, and more deadly than other traps— and that is all that can be said for it. The " stop-noose " snare of the R.S.P.C.A. is cheaper, much more humane, and is effective. Snares of any sort are very little used in the East of England. I know of one big East Anglian estate where 20,000 rabbits a year were killed, none of them by trapping ; and I believe Government authorities which have had recourse to trapping have used stop-noose traps ; but the Forestry Commissioners, at any rate—and they have been forced to clear immense warrens of tens of thousands of rabbits— have done the necessary work with ferrets, nets, and guns. The method is more humane ; and besides has this over- whelming advantage over the steel trap that it does not hurt any animal other than the animal that must be destroyed. The steel-trappers are quite upsetting the balance of nature, and, in addition, inflicting pain on domestic as well as wild animals. Nor are they reducing the tale of rabbits.
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