Westport Properties Receives PETA Award for Banning Glue Traps

Owner of US Storage Centers Shows a Big Heart for Small Animals

For Immediate Release:
August 8, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Newport Beach, Calif. — After learning from PETA about the cruelty of using glue traps to kill mice, Newport Beach–based Westport Properties, owners of US Storage Centers, which operates more than 60 self-storage facilities in California and eight other states, removed and banned the devices from all of its properties. Westport Properties will receive a Compassionate Company Award from PETA and a big box of vegan chocolates shaped like mice.

“From the West Coast to New England, US Storage Centers are now glue trap–free zones,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “By removing and banning glue traps, Westport Properties has spared countless mice, birds, and other small animals a terrifying and painful end.”

Glue traps are pieces of plastic or cardboard coated with a strong adhesive. After getting caught in the traps, panicked animals struggle to escape—often breaking their bones and ripping the flesh, fur, or feathers off their bodies in the process. Some animals chew off their own limbs in an attempt to free themselves, and others get their noses, mouths, or beaks stuck in the glue. The more the animals struggle, the more they stick to the traps, only to die from exhaustion, injury, shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss. Glue traps are also ineffective and fail to address the source of the problem—more mice simply move in to take the place of those who have been killed.

Westport Properties joins a growing list of self-storage and other companies—including Uncle Bob’s Self Storage and Extra Space Storage, as well as a majority of the nation’s top banks and other financial institutions—that have pledged not to use glue traps after hearing from PETA.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.