Residents urged to back anti-glue trap campaign
One of the world’s biggest animal welfare charities is urging Lochaber’s residents to lend their support to its call for the Scottish Government to ban cruel glue traps.
The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the public sale and use of glue traps – sometimes called glue boards.
Sold in many hundreds of DIY stores and small shops, HSI says rodent glue traps cause unimaginable suffering to many thousands of helpless animals each year.
Trapped in the glue for hours or days, mice and rats suffer horrific injuries and a slow death. In their desperate struggle to escape many break limbs and tear off fur and skin before eventually suffocating or dying of dehydration.
There are regular reports of other animals getting stuck on them too, including birds and even cats.
Stephanie Maw, Humane Society International/ UK campaigner, told the Lochaber Times this week: ‘Lochaber is renowned for the diversity of its wildlife, yet glue traps, owing to their indiscriminate nature, are a huge threat to birds and other wild animals and will cause any trapped animal horrendous suffering.
‘Once they are stuck to a glue board, animals often suffer a slow and agonising death by starvation or by suffocation from their mouths being clogged with glue. Sometimes they even chew off their own limbs in a desperate attempt to escape.
‘Glue traps have already been outlawed in Ireland, New Zealand and the Australian state of Victoria, and it is wonderful that the Scottish Government is now also considering a ban.
‘We urge the minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment Mairi Gougeon to take swift action to protect Scotland’s animals by prohibiting these cruel devices.’
And Scottish SPCA chief superintendent Mike Flynn echoed her words, telling us: ‘The Scottish SPCA is opposed to the use of glue traps.
‘They are unnecessarily cruel and cause an immense amount of suffering to the animals trapped in them. They are also totally indiscriminate in what they catch.
‘They are still legal in the UK. Those setting the traps are obliged to stop unnecessary suffering by checking them regularly but there is no way of monitoring or enforcing this.
‘It’s an inhumane method of pest control that has no place in modern society. We would support an outright ban on glue traps.’