Evolve and Ban Glue Trap Sales: Home Depot to Hear From PETA at Annual Meeting

For Immediate Release:
May 17, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

When will The Home Depot reflect its customers’ values by ending the sale of glue traps, on which it takes days for animals to die from starvation, suffocation, or blood loss? That’s the point PETA will make tomorrow at the company’s virtual annual shareholder meeting, noting how often remorseful buyers of glue traps seek help liberating trapped animals once they witness the suffering these devices inflict. And to help drive home PETA’s point, a PETA member who also owns stock in The Home Depot will implore the company to stop selling these cruel traps.

“Most buyers of glue traps have no idea that trapped animals will scream, panic, and even rip their skin in an attempt to escape from these devices,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on The Home Depot to join the many other companies that have banned these agonizing traps.”

Glue traps ensnare wildlife—including rodents and even birds—who get stuck in the adhesive and frantically rip out their own fur or feathers, chew off their own limbs, or break their bones while struggling to free themselves. Glue traps also fail as a long-term solution because they don’t address the source of the problem: As long as food remains available, more animals will move in to take the place of those who have been killed.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—notes that Target, Walmart Canada, Dollar General, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS have all banned the sale of glue traps. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s shareholder question and the PETA member’s statement follow.

My question is from PETA. PETA has urged The Home Depot to stop selling glue traps, which are coated with a strong adhesive that sticks to animals’ fur, feathers, or skin. The company knows that animals caught on them suffer, slowly dying from suffocation, starvation, or blood loss from ripping their skin or chewing their limbs off trying to escape. Yet it claims that customers need the option to buy these torture devices. Most people who buy them have no idea how much suffering they cause. People regularly contact PETA pleading for help with animals struggling on glue traps. In fact, customers leave shocking reviews on your website:

-“Shame on Home Depot for selling this”

-“Inhumane. Would not use again”

-“This item is a horror”

-“Torture device”

-“Horrifying experience”

-“Do not use if you have a soul”

Your consumers agree that glue traps shouldn’t be sold.

My question is this: What will it take for The Home Depot to evolve to reflect its consumers’ values by ending glue trap sales?

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My name is Nancy, and I have a comment about glue traps.

I had a nightmare in which I found my cat stuck on a glue trap. Unable to help, I watched her struggle to escape for days. She tore her skin and tried to bite off her legs to free herself from the unforgiving glue. Exhausted and weak from blood loss, she laid her head down, and her nose and mouth got stuck in the glue. She gasped for air and eventually succumbed to her injuries.

I awoke, relieved to know it was a dream. But I was nauseated for hours, knowing that countless animals die this way. The cruelty is unbearable to contemplate, much less endure. Cats, dogs, and birds, not just rodents, get stuck on glue traps. I can’t imagine any animal (myself included) dying that way.

I’ve convinced stores and landlords not to use glue traps. People are grateful for the information. The world is becoming more informed and humane. That’s why The Home Depot should act now and stop selling glue traps.