PETA Celebrates Proposed Legislation to Ban Glue Traps in NYC

For Immediate Release:
February 12, 2026

Contact:
Alex Payne 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA President Tracy Reiman regarding today’s introduction of a proposed glue trap ban in New York City by Council Member Harvey Epstein:

It’s a big day for little animals in New York City thanks to Council Member Harvey Epstein’s proposed glue trap ban, which has the potential to spare countless mice, rats, birds, and other animals from slow, excruciating, and terrifying deaths. Glue traps are cruel, ineffective, and quickly becoming a thing of the past. PETA encourages New Yorkers to urge their councilmembers to support this lifesaving bill.

PETA notes that the New York City Department of Sanitation has reported that rodent sightings have dropped significantly—by 20 percent—since the city began focusing on trash containment. PETA and animal protection groups around the state are working on a bill in the New York State Legislature that has broad and bipartisan support in the State Senate and Assembly, which would ban the use of glue traps in all state-owned and leased buildings. Wildlife rehabilitators, animal hospitals, animal and environmental advocacy groups, and public health agencies around the country all oppose glue traps because they indiscriminately threaten all small animals—and the trapped animals’ bodily fluids present a public health risk.

PETA’s campaign against the use of glue traps has led major retailers such as CVS, Target, Walgreens, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree to ban them, and PETA spearheaded the introduction and passage of the first three city-level glue trap bans in the United States—in Culver City, Ojai, and West Hollywood, California. Glue traps are also banned in England, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, and throughout much of Australia, Belgium, and India.