I was very sad when I read the news about the petition, I don’t see any reason why the existing petitions couldn’t be re-opened after the election, but then it’s a great way for the government to get rid of a pile of work and sweep everything under the carpet! Meanwhile these traps are out there multiplying!
As Nic pointed out earlier, DEFRA contradict themselves in their response to the petition,
Where the safety of protected species cannot be reasonably assured, the use of non-lethal methods of capture, such as cage trapping, should be employed so non-target species can be released unharmed if accidently captured.
There is no way the safety of protected species can be assured with these traps, so why on earth did DEFRA ever give the go ahead. Surely there is some legal route we could go down on this…any ideas anyone…any legal boffins out there???
