Written by PETA
Biologists working in Colombia got a cute little surprise when a red-crested tree rat, a species that was thought to be long extinct, ambled up to them and posed for pictures. The small rodent is causing much excitement among scientists, leading us to ask, "'Who cares about rodents?"' Everyone should!
You can show you care about rodents by using a Humane Smart Mousetrap if one gets in your house—and setting him or her free outside.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
To celebrate "Be Kind to Animals" Week, we're featuring easy ways to be kind to animals that anyone can try—in some cases, without even leaving the house.
Our week starts with one of the smallest animals: mice. If you find yourself sharing your home with a mouse, there are easy cruelty-free methods for parting ways. A Humane Smart Mousetrap, available from PETA, is an easy solution, but you can also make a trap yourself by putting oatmeal and peanut butter in the bottom of a small wastebasket and stacking books outside it so that the mouse can climb in, but not out. Check the trap every hour and release your evicted houseguest no more than 100 yards away.
Most importantly—you can only prevent return visits by sealing holes and cracks, keeping food in sealed containers, and keeping floors and countertops clean and free of crumbs.
Look for more easy ways to be kind to animals every day this week.
Besides being cruel, using poison to control wildlife is dangerous because children and animal companions can easily ingest it—and this can have fatal consequences. Recently, seven children in San Francisco ate rat poison that they found at their middle school, mistaking the blue cubes for candy. The children were taken to nearby hospitals and, fortunately, are all right.
The only way to ensure that children and animal companions don't ingest rat, mice, insect, or other poisons is not to buy the deadly chemicals. Many great live traps are available, such as PETA's Humane Smart Mousetrap, which uses a small plastic hut and peanut butter to safely catch animals so that they can be released outside with no harm done to them or anyone else. There are also many effective ways to animal-proof a building so that critters can't get inside in the first place.
It was literally a sticky situation for employees at one Lowe's store in Toledo, Ohio, yesterday, when a woman dressed as a mouse entered the store and "glued" herself to the floor. As the "mouse" screamed and writhed, customers surrounded her with caution signs reading, "Lowe's Tortures Animals."
The "mouse" was taken into police custody after half an hour of shrieking and struggling, and she was lucky. Being arrested is nothing compared to the days of starvation and dehydration that animals ensnared in glue traps suffer. The misery of glue traps is so painful that some animals even chew off their own legs in a desperate attempt to free themselves. No glue trap is humane—and there are effective alternatives. Urge Lowe's to end the torment and stop selling glue traps immediately.
Written by Logan Scherer
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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