Misleading Description of Mouse Trap Lands Scotts Company an FTC Complaint

Trap Is Cruel and Ineffective and Can Upset Ethical Consumers, PETA Says 

For Immediate Release:
July 15, 2010

Contact:
Jeffrey S. Kerr, Esq. 757-622-7382

Marysville, Ohio -- In response to numerous consumer complaints describing mice who were found writhing and squeaking inside Ortho Home Defense MAX Kill & Contain mouse traps, PETA has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking action against Marysville-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, the maker of the traps. PETA says that Scotts has purposely made misleading claims about the trap, using ads that promise "no mess" and "no drama" when, in fact, the trap causes great suffering and has upset consumers who are left with dying mice to help or dispose of. Scotts has refused to address these concerns despite fair warning.

"Scotts' deceptive advertising is fooling people into thinking that they are buying a humane mousetrap when what they are actually getting is a miniature torture chamber," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "The FTC should act to prevent consumers from coming home to find a bloody, dying mouse in one of these cruel traps."

Several customer reviews of the product on Scotts' Web site and various consumer Web sites indicate that mice caught in the Kill & Contain trap often suffer a lingering, painful death. More than three months after Scotts announced that an improved design of the trap was available, one consumer reviewer was horrified to find blood all over his countertop and a mouse who was "three-quarters of the way out of the bait side of the trap." Even Barry Sanders, executive vice president of Scotts, contradicted the company in an interview published in Columbus Business First on February 20, 2009. In the article, Sanders describes the Kill & Contain trap as an enclosed trap that flips the mouse and induces hypothermia.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.