Animal rights activists submitted a referendum petition to advocate a wholesale ban on metal lasso snares (boar sling traps) today (7/12). In response, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA) stated that there are still times where there is a need for the use of metal lasso snares, particularly when it comes to farmers in mountain communities preventing wild animals from damaging crops, as well as for the traditional hunting activities of indigenous peoples. There are currently no alternative tools that are more effective or safer to replace the metal lasso snares. If a need to use metal lasso snares still exists, a wholesale ban will not help to improve the current situation and will force the usage to become more secretive, which is not conducive to conservation management. In recent years, the FANCA has developed improved hunting gear that is less harmful, and has been actively promoting the adoption of such hunting gear for free to the residents of the mountain communities who need it, thereby taking care of both conservation and the livelihood of residents.
The FANCA explained that steel-jaw traps are the hunting gear that can cause immediate and serious harm to wildlife, and the Ministry of Agriculture has already amended the Wildlife Conservation Act to fully prohibit their use. The amendment is currently under review by the Legislative Yuan. However, metal lasso snares (boar sling traps) are commonly used by farmers in the mountainous areas to help prevent and reduce wildlife damage to agricultural produce, and are also used by indigenous peoples to hunt wild game. This means that there is a strong demand for the metal lasso snares in practice, with no alternatives available, thus a complete ban of the metal lasso snares is not quite feasible. Moreover, once the use of metal lasso snares becomes illegal, if non-targeted endangered wildlife (e.g. Formosan black bears) are inadvertently caught, the user might not proactively notify authorities for animal rescue due to a fear of violating the law, and may even destroy the evidence, which is detrimental to the conservation of endangered species.
According to the FANCA, the effective management of the metal lasso snares is the goal of the Agency, but the government needs to first gain the trust of the farmers and indigenous peoples who use these snares. In the past, mainstream society lacked understanding or even felt hostility towards farmers’ control of animal damage and indigenous peoples’ hunting activities, and the use of metal lasso snares has remained a grey area, making it difficult for the government to reach the users, much less implement management. Therefore, the goal of effectively managing metal lasso snares requires a period of empathy, which will take time. A hasty wholesale ban will only drive the use of metal snares into even murkier waters, and may even lead the mountain communities to switch to even more harmful preventive and control measures (e.g. placing poisonous bait).
The FANCA also stated that according to the Convention on Biological Diversity and global conservation trends, wildlife conservation should respect and take into account the rights of local indigenous peoples and communities. Currently, the international community’s approach is generally to encourage the use of improved hunting equipment to minimize unnecessary harm to animals; they do not ban the use of the metal lasso snares. The improved hunting gear developed by the FANCA is based on those used in Japan, with a wire diameter larger than 4cm, while the lasso is equipped with a figure-eight swivel ring and a non-slip sleeve, which prevents hurting the animal due to entanglement and tightening of the lasso. The pedal diameter is smaller than 12cm, which has been proven to be effective in avoiding the accidental capture of non-targeted wild animals (e.g. Formosan black bears and leopard cats).
The FANCA emphasized that the use of metal lasso snares (boar sling traps) should be based on taking seriously the needs of farmers to prevent and control agricultural pests and respecting the Indigenous peoples’ rights to natural resources, while also endeavoring to minimize the harm caused to wildlife by the metal lasso snares. So far, the FANCA has distributed 4,609 improved hunting gears free of charge to farmers and indigenous peoples in mountain communities that need them. After this amendment of the Wildlife Conservation Act is passed, the FANCA will gradually replace commercially available large-pedal-diameter metal lasso snares with improved hunting gear, and move toward a more detailed management of trap usage.
Appendix: For more information on the metal lasso snares and improved hunting gear, please refer to the following Facebook posts.
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Men and Bears 1 - The Best Thing that Can Happen During Human-Bear Encounter: Nothing Happens]
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Men and Bears 2 - Your Cruelty, My Livelihood]
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Men and Bears 3 - Empathy and Trust]
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Men and Bears 4 - Local Residents are the First Line of Conservation.]
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Men and Bear 5 - No One Wants to See Bears in Snares Less than We Do]