D.C.-Area Metro Must Stop Cruel Use of Glue Traps, Says PETA

Trapped Rats, Mice, and Other Small Animals Can Suffer for Days and Experience Slow, Agonizing Deaths

For Immediate Release:
July 31, 2014

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA is calling on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to discontinue the use of glue traps to ensnare mice and rats—sentencing them to a likely prolonged, painful death—on its properties. The group—whose motto states, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—has sent urgent letters to WMATA asking the agency to pull the traps and has posted an action alert on its popular website encouraging visitors to contact transit authorities and urge them to stop using the vile devices.

Small animals caught in glue traps—which have been known to ensnare “nontarget” animals such as kittens and birds—can rip themselves to pieces in a frantic struggle to escape before succumbing to stress, shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss, sometimes days later. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns against using glue traps because of the disease risks posed by the many pathogens in the waste of stressed rodents, and use of these devices to kill animals likely violates Washington and Maryland anti-cruelty laws.

“Each glue trap set in Metro stations can mean excruciating pain and a lingering death for any bird, mouse, or rat who gets caught,” says PETA Senior Director Colleen O’Brien. “PETA is calling on D.C.-area transit authorities to end this taxpayer-subsidized cruelty by ending its use of glue traps for good.”

In addition to causing horrible animal suffering, glue traps are ineffective and fail to address the source of the problem: food and garbage. So long as these remain, more mice and rats simply move in to take the place of those who have been killed, and the temporary spike in the food supply will prompt animals to breed at an accelerated rate.

Many top home-improvement stores and pharmacies refuse to sell glue traps, and many businesses—including six of the nation’s largest self-storage companies and a majority of top banks and other financial institutions—refuse to use them.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.