HELP US BAN SNARES

When Jade Emery from Animal Aid reached out to us to ask if we would like to collaborate in an initiative to help ban snares in the UK along with LUSH Cosmetics, we sprang into action. Animal Aid is a proactive group campaigning against all forms of animal abuse and our friends at LUSH have long been allies of our in the fight against animal cruelty, so it was a perfect fit. Let's hear from Jade exactly how this came together and how you can help us #bansnares.

'Many people we talk to have no clue what snares are. Most people are then shocked to discover that these traps are not only still legal in Britain, but they are used, especially on shooting estates, all over the country.' - Jade Emery - Animal Aid

'According to a Defra report, in 2012,' ‘at any one time and depending on the season, between 62,800 and 188,300 fox snares were in use in England and between 17,200 and 51,600 fox snares in Wales’.

'Animal Aid launched their campaign calling for a ban on snares in April, and teamed up with Lush, Hunt Investigation Team and the National Anti-Snaring Campaign in August to promote the government petition which also called for a ban on these archaic devices animalaid.org.uk/snarespetition.'

 'Together with Lush, we commissioned artwork to go in all their store windows, with a QR code which would take customers straight to the petition.'

'We also had stencils created featuring animals who are known to be caught and injured by snares. The stencils meant customers could use paint to stencil the animal onto the store window, and sign their name, or the name of an animal they know, to represent some of the animals – named and unnamed – who have been injured or killed by snares.'

'We commissioned a performance by aerial hoop performers Rebecca Rennison and Suzy Smith to demonstrate the terrible experience of many animals caught in snares.'

'On Saturday, 21^st August, we visited the LUSH flagship Oxford Street store to promote the campaign, speak to customers and to ask people to sign the petition to ban snares. This was the highlight of the 12 day ‘store-takeover’ and we wanted to stage something dramatic, evocative and thought-provoking, yet non-graphic. The intention of this performance was to communicate the horror of snares as powerfully as possible, in a manner appropriate for the high street.'

'The masks were chosen as they are environmentally friendly, easy to download and construct and are simple yet extremely beautiful and evocative of the animal they portray.'

'The two amazing performers wore card masks, designed by Wintercroft, of a badger and a fox, (due to the nature of the dance, we adapted the fox mask’s ears and colouring to represent a badger.) The half-masks also enabled the dancer’s faces to be seen to portray the animals’ vocalisations. The dancers did an excellent job of capturing the public’s imagination and raising awareness of this issue.

SIGN THE PETITION BY NOVEMBER 4TH

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Jade, the performers and all the teams at Animal Aid and LUSH Cosmetics for their collaboration in making our masks part of such an important action. To find out more about the campaign please visit:

animalaid.org.uk/bansnares

to sign the petition visit

animalaid.org.uk/snarespetition

All visual media kindly provided by the good people at LUSH