Lord Benyon, the Parliamentary Under-secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Defra has explained that the two year period before the offences apply would give adequate time to put a suitable licencing regime in place as this was said after the Glue Traps (Offences) Bill passed its second reading unopposed, with the exemption for pest controllers still included, through the House of Lords at Westminster.
It was argued by Conservative peer Baroness Fookes that glue traps were "tantamount to torture" and no animal "whether regarded as a pest or not, should have to suffer such an inhumane way of dying".
The Bill as it stands would make an offense for a person to: Set a glue trap if the intention was to kill rodents or if they knew it could kill a rodent, allow someone else to set the trap and a person passing saw such a trap and did nothing about it, this was also an offence. Suggestions were made that this could be unfair on the innocent passers-by who would not even recognise a glue trap if they saw one.
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However, if BPCA fought for an early exemption for pest controllers and this amendment remains in the Bill after its second reading in the House of Lords, this will be managed through a licensing regime as this applies only to England.
Lord Benyon added that "The Government looked forward to working closely with animal welfare groups and pest control organisations to ensure that the licensing regime is appropriate and effective.
He noted that the Government currently expected the public authority delegated with the licensing functions to be Natural England, as it already fulfilled this function for other licences relating to wildlife management, such as licences for bird control.
BPCA Chief Executive, Ian Andrew, commented that they have always shared the concerns of animal welfare groups on the subject of glue boards and that they are right, in wrong hands these can be nasty tools with potentially disastrous consequences for non-target and target species.
He mentioned that a licensing scheme that takes glue boards out of the hands of untrained amateurs but retains them for professionals to use in critical public health situations is best for everyone. For glue boards, every single user of glue boards should be aware of how to use them responsibly.
