Two men charged over snare offences on grouse moor after GBF investigation

Two men have been charged in connection with alleged snare offences on Ruabon Moor, the North Wales grouse moor where Green Britain Foundation's hidden cameras filmed snares being set and checked in the summer of 2025.

Stuart Hart, 50, of Penycae, and Jack Yates, 23, of Ruabon, are each charged with setting a snare likely to cause bodily injury to a wild animal, an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended by the Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023, the law that banned snares in Wales. Hart faces two charges, over two incidents in July and August 2025. Yates faces one charge over an incident in July 2025. Both are due before Llandudno Magistrates' Court on 18 November.

It is believed to be the first case under the Welsh snares ban on land used for game shooting. Ruabon Moor is the only driven grouse moor in North Wales.

Dale Vince, founder of Green Britain Foundation, said when we released the footage last October: "Snares are medieval cruelty. Wales and Scotland banned them for good reason. Snares are indiscriminate, killing all kinds of wildlife in the most hideously cruel way. They are used to kill wildlife in support of bird breeding as part of the business of shooting birds for sport and for money. Labour should make good on its pre-election pledge and ban snares in England without further delay."

Our investigation

Green Britain Foundation ran covert cameras at a site in Llandegla Forest, on the edge of Ruabon Moor, between June and August 2025.

We handed the footage to North Wales Police on 25 August 2025. Officers attended the same day, documented the scene and removed the snares as evidence. The force opened a formal investigation, which we reported in October 2025.

All three charges relate to the period our cameras were running. North Wales Police Rural Crime Team has confirmed the case is built on evidence Green Britain Foundation gathered and handed over.

Why it matters

Snares have been illegal in Wales since October 2023 under the Agriculture (Wales) Act. Scotland banned them in 2024. England has not. The Government promised a ban in its manifesto and repeated the promise in its Animal Welfare Strategy last December. Ten months on there is still no law.

Snares are used wherever someone wants predators dead. We focus on grouse moors because that is where it happens on an industrial scale. A grouse moor exists to produce as many grouse as possible for people to shoot for fun. Anything that might eat a grouse is treated as vermin and killed. Foxes are the main target for snares. Badgers, hares and anything else that wanders into the wire die too.

The case continues.