American tails

SIR – Recent letters (March 12) have discussed humane squirrel traps.

A few summers ago my husband and I rented a cabin by a lake in a rural part of upstate New York.

We soon realised that we shared this idyll with others. I went to a local hardware store with an American friend and asked the staff if they sold mousetraps that didn’t kill the mice.

There was a bewildered silence until my friend explained: “She’s from England.”