White House Mouse Incident Prompts PETA Gift: A Humane Mousetrap!

Nonlethal Device Offers a Compassionate Solution for Unwanted Guests

For Immediate Release:
October 3, 2019

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

After a mouse reportedly fell from the White House ceiling and landed on a reporter’s lap, PETA is rushing over a humane mousetrap—which catches mice to be released alive and unharmed outdoors—as well as a copy of its “Living in Harmony With House Mice and Rats” tip sheet to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The group is willing to provide many more humane traps, if needed.

“The White House is this mouse’s house, too, but we’d rather that she be evicted than eviscerated, so we’re providing a humane trap that allows her to be put outdoors safely,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Effective rodent-control measures are those that keep smart, gentle mice out of glue traps and reporters’ laps without harming them.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—offers the following tips for humane rodent control that are effective across the aisle:

• Put all food and garbage in sturdy, well-sealed containers that rats and mice can’t chew through, and feed companion animals indoors (and pick up the dishes when they’ve finished eating).
• Trim back vegetation around buildings, stack wood in tight piles away from the house, and seal holes larger than ¼-inch in diameter, cracks in the walls and floors, and gaps around doors, windows, and plumbing.
• After rodent-proofing the building, live-trap and remove any rats and mice still inside. Use a commercially available Havahart trap or make your own. Check the trap hourly, and release any captured rats within 100 yards of where they were caught.

PETA opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.