The Spring Traps Approval Order 1995

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

By virtue of section 8 of the Pests Act 1954 it is an offence to use in England and Wales for the purposes of killing or taking animals a spring trap other than one approved by an Order of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State.

This Order revokes and replaces the Spring Traps Approval Order 1975 and subsequent amendments listed in article 3 (“the previous Orders”). Article 2 specifies approved traps, namely those listed in column (1) of the Schedule and others which are equivalent in all relevant respects to those so listed. The Order adds four types of traps to those approved under the previous Orders. Conditions attached to the approval of each type of trap are specified in column (2) of the Schedule. These have been amended from the conditions in the previous Orders so as to ensure that no trap could operate as a leghold trap as defined in Article 1 of Council Regulation (EEC) 3254/91 (OJ No. L308, 9.11.91, p.1) prohibiting the use of leghold traps in the Community and the introduction into the Community of pelts and manufactured goods of certain wild animal species originating in countries which catch them by means of leghold traps or trapping methods which do not meet international humane trapping standards.