Written by Michelle Kretzer
Raise your barbells to Millennium Partners Sports Club Management, LLC, which is banning glue traps from all its locations nationwide.
After talks with PETA, Millennium learned how glue traps cause their victims a slow, agonizing death. Because the animals get stuck but aren't killed, they struggle to free themselves, often ripping off fur, skin, or feathers in the process. They may also chew off their own limbs to try to escape. Animals may languish for days before finally succumbing to starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, or injuries. And glue traps don't discriminate—birds, companion animals, and even small children can be harmed by them.
Presented with that information, Millennium agreed that glue traps had about as much business being in their gyms as a triple cheeseburger—and neither one will be making it through the door.
Make sure that neither gets through your door, either, with a humane "smart" mousetrap (and a veggie burger, of course).
A homeowner in Virginia learned the hard way that glue traps don't discriminate—they will snare any animal, anytime. The man had set out the trap at his home, and when he checked it 24 hours later, he found nine snakes caught in the sticky pan. Thankfully, the homeowner was decent enough to immediately take the trap to The Wildlife Center of Virginia, an organization that offers health care to native wildlife. Using mineral oil, Goo Gone, and a lot of care, the staff freed the snakes and released them back into the wild. Good job, everyone!
© Dr. Dave McRuer
These snakes were lucky—they didn't languish for days in the trap before finally succumbing to starvation and dehydration, as many animals caught in glue traps do. They didn't tear themselves apart struggling to escape. Their mouths didn't become lodged in the glue, causing them to asphyxiate. And they had compassionate people working to ensure that they were freed from the trap.
Most animals who are caught in glue traps aren't as lucky, and these animals are very often not even the ones the glue trap was supposed to catch. Birds, squirrels, gerbils, hamsters, cats, dogs, and even small children can fall prey to glue traps.
PETA offers a Humane Smart Mousetrap that is effective and completely safe for children and nontarget animals.
When the mouse enters the trap to obtain the food reward, the door shuts behind him or her. All the homeowner has to do is monitor the trap carefully and then carry it outside, lift the door, and walk away. The mouse runs away, and the homeowner never has to touch the little animal.
To order your Humane Smart Mousetrap, visit the PETA Catalog. And save countless lives by offering to loan it to anyone who is considering using a glue trap.
Written by PETA
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Here's one of the most fun things that you'll see all weekend: Morrissey's version of a cat in the hat.
The abuse that snake charmers inflict on snakes to make them "dance" is anything but charming, so PETA India offered a simple solution: Use fake snakes.
This is perhaps the most consequential quote of the animal rights movement. It never gets old.
Here's just a small excerpt from the eye-opening article "How I Failed as a Rescuer: Lessons From a Sanctuary," which is a must-read for those you know who may not understand the problems with "no-kill" shelters: "Here's what I know now, having worked at a shelter and in rescue: All animals deserve love at the end of their lives. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is to provide a peaceful death. And a peaceful death comes from a human taking full responsibility for the life of that animal. I wish I had done that."
United Airlines' mistreatment of animals continue: A disabled veteran says airline workers abused his service dog.
New Feature
George Brett's new PETA spot is so cool—and he wants dogs to be cool, too.
New Action Alerts
Tell 99 Cents Only stores that only stores without sense still sell glue traps.
And while you're at it, let Menards know about the suffering that glue traps cause small animals, too.
iStockphoto.com/GlobalP
How can a property management group require tenants to mutilate their cats? By calling it "declawing." Urge Bruce Tanski Construction & Development to stop requiring this cruel amputation.
Unless trainees at the Madigan Army Medical Center plan to spend their careers intubating ferrets, the center needs to prepare students to treat real children. Tell the center to replace animals with lifelike human simulators.
Thank you for speaking up for Diego, an aging military dog, and Logan Black, the soldier who wants to bring him home. The Air Force has now told PETA that Diego is ready to retire and that Black is at the top of the list to adopt him!
Scene and Heard
Have you seen PETA's new plan to put abusers at SeaWorld in a "SeaWorld of Hurt"?
Written by Jeff Mackey
Anyone who's heard her recent hit "Monster" (possibly NSFW, depending on where you work) knows that music sensation Meg Myers isn't afraid to be passionate and outspoken. As she prepares to play her first L.A. concert, Meg speaks out in a new video for PETA about one of her passions—her adorable rat companions—and urges people not to use cruel glue traps:
Rats are smart, clean animals who can be playful and affectionate companions, as Meg describes. Not everyone welcomes rodents into their homes, though, and irrational bigotry causes many people to resort to cruel and deadly methods when rats are spotted—the worst of which are glue traps.
Glue traps contain a sticky adhesive designed to capture any small animal who wanders across them, ripping patches of skin, fur, and feathers off their bodies as they struggle to escape. Many animals chew off their own legs trying to free themselves, while some get their noses and mouths or beaks stuck in the glue and slowly suffocate. Glue-trap manufacturers generally direct consumers to throw animals away along with the trap, leaving animals to suffer for days until they finally die of starvation or dehydration.
If you're ready to welcome a rat into your life, like Meg, be sure to adopt from an animal shelter or a rescue organization, instead of buying one from a pet store.
If rats show up uninvited, though, don't panic—just get (or make) a humane live trap and relocate your surprise guests, being sure to find and patch any openings that allow them access to your home. And if you spot glue traps on a store shelf, please urge the manager to carry live traps instead.
Long after Wells Fargo retired the horses that used to pull its trademark stagecoaches, the bank is helping animals again. After Wells Fargo executives heard from PETA about how mice and other animals suffer when they are ensnared in glue traps, the bank banned all such vile traps from its 6,200 national locations, earning itself a a Compassionate Company Award and a big box of vegan chocolate mice, which PETA sent to the company's San Francisco headquarters.
Beige Alert | cc by 2.0
PETA explained that mice, birds, and other small animals struggle to free themselves after being caught in these pans of pain, often ripping out their fur and feathers and breaking their bones before they eventually succumb to their injuries or to blood loss, dehydration, shock, suffocation, or exhaustion. Wells Fargo refused to support such cruelty.
Now three of the Big Four banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase) as well as 13 of the top 25 financial institutions have pledged never to use glue traps.
Each of us is inherently an "animal rights person" to some degree, whether we realize it or not. Take the recent case of the Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail blogger who wrote about having a mouse in her house. In the post, she wrote, "Please don't email me PETA." We did one better—we sent her a humane mousetrap and then she contacted us to learn more about it. A week later, she wrote this in her blog:
"So I thought I'd do a little research on the humane mousetrap and have a chat with PETA, after all they were kind enough to send it to me, to help with my 'uninvited' guest. At first, I was a little wary. I mean this is the group that files lawsuits on behalf of orcas, and well, there's nothing I like better than a … steak. But we may have found common ground on the mousetrap."
jma.work | cc by 2.0
Whether or not people support all of PETA's campaigns, most everyone can agree on the basic principle that cruelty to animals is wrong. Even if our friends and family aren't yet convinced that they should part ways with meat, perhaps they do agree that dogs deserve better than spending their lives on a chain or that baby elephants shouldn't be beaten by circus trainers.
When we work to find that common ground, animals win. And who knows, maybe today's humane-mousetrap user is PETA's next Person of the Year.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
As the nights get chilly, the thought of passing the evenings with friends and family in a nice, warm house sounds delightful … to mice. Like humans, mice are social animals who enjoy each other's company, and while you might not be so eager to enjoy theirs, you might have a little more respect for them after reading these fascinating mouse tidbits:
If—despite their charm—you still don't care to share your home with mice, the best way to keep them out of your humble abode is to prevent them from getting inside in the first place. Seal mouse-size holes (mice can enter a hole the size of a dime), keep food in sealed containers, always clean up crumbs right away, and use safe, homemade deterrents like peppermint-soaked cotton balls. If you already have unwanted mouseguests, never use cruel glue traps, which leave the animals to suffer slow deaths from suffocation or dehydration. Instead, pick up a few humane mousetraps and set the mice free outdoors.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Exciting news out of Chennai, where the Animal Welfare Board of India has banned the use of glue traps to snare and (miserably) kill mice and rats, declaring, "Available evidence clearly suggests that the use of glue traps causes unnecessary pain and suffering to the rodents and is against the spirit of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act ...."
PETA's cruelty caseworkers can offer plenty of evidence of the "unnecessary pain and suffering" caused by glue traps—and not just to rodents. For instance, a recent call concerned a bird who had become helplessly mired in a restaurant's glue trap.
You'll be glad to know that things worked out OK for this little guy, whom we arranged to be taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, but for far too many animals, glue traps mean days of suffering before death by starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, or shock. In addition to being cruel, glue traps also spread diseases, which is why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not using them.
The other good news to come out of this case is that the restaurant has seen the light and will no longer use glue traps. Still, a lot of folks could stand to follow the example of these restaurateurs (and India) by detaching themselves from pans of pain.
If you see anyone using glue traps, or if you'd like to see a glue-trap ban in your community, don't be shy—speak up! And if you have rats or mice visiting your business or home, learn to live peacefully and kindly with our smart and resourceful rodent neighbors.
Customers were horrified when they discovered two songbirds stuck to a glue trap at a Walmart store in Indiana. One customer rushed the birds to a wildlife rehabilitator, while another contacted PETA. We alerted law enforcement and Walmart, and Walmart acknowledged that it has a policy against using glue traps for bird control but claimed that the traps had been set for rodents. Glue traps are (obviously) indiscriminate and ensnare any animals who are unfortunate enough to wander across their path, so Walmart removed the traps that had been set in that store.
Many "non-target" animals—including birds, squirrels, gerbils, hamsters, and even kittens—suffer immensely and die in glue traps every year. One tiny kitten in Boston nearly starved to death when she became ensnared in a glue trap. PETA has asked Walmart to stop using these traps in all its stores.
If you know of any local businesses, schools, or property management companies that are using glue traps, urge them remove the traps immediately and contact PETA if they won't.
An alert resident in Yorktown, Virginia, called PETA to tell us that a bird was caught in a glue trap set in the rafters of a Wal-Mart store. The trap was one of many that had been set by a bird-removal contractor to catch birds who wandered into the store. PETA staffers hurried to the scene and rescued the bird, and we rushed him to the local SPCA. The agency was able to remove the bird, a member of a protected species, from the glue trap, but the stress and injuries that he had endured were substantial, and he passed away overnight.
PETA alerted Wal-Mart headquarters to the sad incident, and Wal-Mart quickly terminated its contract with the bird-removal company for breaching a corporate policy, which prohibits birds from being harmed during removal. Local animal-control officers also ordered the bird-removal contractor to stop using glue traps for bird control, and they visited all local big-box stores with garden departments to inform managers that glue traps set for bird removal is cruel and will not be tolerated.
In a related victory, Bank of America announced that it is removing glue traps set for rodents. PETA apprised the bank of the cruelty and disease risks inherent in glue traps, so it agreed to test alternative tactics, which were found to be effective.
The kindhearted Wal-Mart customer helped prevent many birds from suffering in cruel glue traps. If you see glue traps set for birds or rodents in any establishment, please politely ask the manager to remove them and report any traps specifically set for birds to local authorities.
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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