Oswestry man prosecuted after homemade snare trap injured neighbour’s cat

A man who made a homemade snare trap, which resulted in a cat sustaining injuries after getting caught in it, has been fined by magistrates.

Michael Anitt, 40, of Erw Wen, in Morda, Oswestry, appeared at Telford Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to the cat left injured.

Anitt was fined £406, ordered to pay £300 costs and was disqualified from keeping animals for 10 years.

The court heard than Anitt made the trap from wire because he didn’t like neighbours’ cats coming into his garden.

On this occasion, on 28 April this year, he had set the trap and then gone away for the weekend.

One of his neighbours’ cats, called Jeremy, came across the trap in Anitt’s garden and, as a result was caught in it for 12 hours.

He was rescued after his owners, concerned that they hadn’t seen him since the evening before, came across him meowing in pain in Anitt’s garden.

RSPCA inspector Phil Lewis, who investigated the case, said: “Poor Jeremy had got caught around his torso and the more he tried to free himself, the tighter the snare got around him. He simply wasn’t able to get free.

“For over 12 hours Jeremy struggled and by the time he was found by his worried owners, he was clearly in a lot of distress. His owners managed to free him and took him to a vet, where thankfully he was not too seriously injured. He has made a full recovery, but he could have very easily not have been that lucky. The snare could have caught him around his neck, strangling him to death.

“Snare traps are horrible things and can cause a lot of damage to any animal which comes across it. Unfortunately for Anitt he discovered this because his homemade trap injured an innocent animal.”