Alex Hogg (Letters, September 12) says that snares will only catch target animals if set by a "professional" gamekeeper and that "on the rare occasion a non-target species is trapped, the snare's stop enables the animal to be released unharmed".

Is he serious? Why have we had six otters caught over a five-year period? The injuries suffered were absolutely horrific. Two were badly cut and died as a result of their injuries. A cub also died because its mother had been trapped. These snares were all set by "professionals".

Don't be deceived: this is not an efficient means of getting rid of what these people regard as pests. Snares are a legal means of torturing and killing our wildlife. No animal should be made to suffer in this way.

It is implied that when the gamekeeper checks the snare and finds an uninjured animal, he can either release it if it is non-target or despatch it humanely if it is. By law, snares must be checked at least every 24 hours, though I would question if this is always the case. However, if an animal is caught soon after the gamekeeper has been, it will spend every last effort trying to escape and this can be seen by the way the snare has dug into the body.

I find hypocritical his suggestion that banning snares will have a negative impact on species such as the hen harrier. This bird has long been a target of gamekeepers.

The sooner these terrible devices are outlawed the better.

Grace M Yoxon, International Otter Survival Fund, Broadford, Isle of Skye.

One of the biggest problems with snares is their indiscriminate nature and the fact that animals - and, in some extreme cases, humans - are at risk from these thin wire nooses which are almost invisible to the eye.

Even those in favour of the continued use of snares admit they are not target-specific. Figures from the British Association of Shooting and Conservation and the Game Conservancy Trust, cited by the Independent Working Group Report on Snares, show that, on average, up to 48% of animals trapped in snares are non-target species. The Independent Working Group Report on Snares concluded: "It may be very difficult, when using snares to catch foxes in some environments, to reduce the overall proportion of non-target animals caught to below about 40%."

For the sake of animal welfare, let us hope the Scottish Government listens to the 2:1 majority of those who responded to the then Scottish Executive consultation on snaring asking for a total ban on these outdated and cruel devices.

Louise Robertson, League Against Cruel Sports, Rosyth.