JSPCA PRESS RELEASE

February 2006  

PET CAT CAUGHT IN ILLEGAL SNARE

A pet cat that had been missing for 24 hours returned home on Saturday night with a crude wire snare tightly bound around its waist.  The owners of the cat were understandably shocked and alerted duty Centenier Michael Paddock to the incident.  Luckily, the cat survived and is recovering from this terrible ordeal.

Snares are illegal in Jersey, although they are still often employed to catch rabbits in Britain.  They can cause serious injuries, often fatal, to animals captured by them.  This particular snare was a copper wire device that appeared to be fashioned from electrical wire.

Snares are very dangerous in that they are indiscriminate as to the animal that they entrap.  The owners of this pet cat live in a residential area in St Ouens, so there could have been a high risk of harm to other pet animals, dogs as well as cats, or even children if they were playing in the area in which the snare had been set.

ENDS