Media release
May 22, 2018
Animal protection groups raise plight of wildlife and pets caught in glue traps
Heartbreaking photos illustrate impact on birds and other animals
Vancouver – B.C. animal protection groups say wildlife and pets are being caught in inhumane glue traps used for rodent control.
The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) has been calling for local retailers, including Rona, The Home Depot, Canadian Tire and Walmart Canada, to stop selling the traps because of the cruelty to rodents, which suffer slow, painful deaths when they become stuck in the traps. VHS says there are alternatives to the traps, including measures to exclude rodents from the home.
But glue traps are also causing wildlife to suffer, as the Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. and the B.C. SPCA have confirmed with heartbreaking photographic evidence of wildlife and even pets being inadvertently caught in the sticky traps.
Wildlife Rescue says it has encountered 74 animals caught in glue traps in the last three years, including songbirds, bats, a hummingbird and a squirrel. The B.C. SPCA’s Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre (Wild ARC) has also treated a number of animals suffering in glue traps, most recently a house sparrow that did not survive. The society also pointed to the case of a kitten caught in a glue trap in Kelowna in 2015, which survived thanks to treatment at the Rose Valley Veterinary Hospital.
“Retailers need to stop selling these cruel traps, which are causing wildlife to suffer, as well as their intended victims,” said VHS spokesperson Peter Fricker.
“Every year Wildlife Rescue is reminded of the deadly consequences these glue traps have on our local wildlife,” said Sam Smith, spokesperson for Wildlife Rescue. “As long as glue traps are offered to the public, wildlife will suffer.”
“The public assumes that because these products are sold at major retailers, they are humane and they are effective in solving problems, when it is just the opposite. Animals caught on the sticky traps linger in panic, struggling to get free, injuring themselves or dying from shock, exhaustion, dehydration, or suffocation. These traps should never be sold to the public,” said Sara Dubois, B.C. SPCA Chief Scientific Officer.
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