Glue boards risk to pets and wildlife

GARDEN birds and other animals continue to face agonising deaths in thoughtlessly placed household ‘glue traps’.

The SSPCA has repeated its call for a ban on the devices, which can be bought online for as little a £1 each.

Staff at the animal charity have shared an image of a magpie and a sparrow dead on a ‘sticky board’.

One of their staff was forced to humanely dispatch both the birds after the glue ripped out their feathers and broke the magpie’s wing.

Glue traps consist of a sheet of plastic, cardboard or wood coated with non-drying adhesive designed to trap rodents such as mice and rats as they cross the board.

They are also known as ‘glue boards’ or ‘sticky boards’.

Mike Flynn, the chief superintendent of the SSPCA, said the traps were “indiscriminate”, “inhumane” and often hidden.

“As things stand at the moment, they are legal. You can buy them online,” he said.

“People put them down in their kitchens, attics and forget about them. A little mouse gets caught in it and either starves to death or has to chew its legs off.

“There’s no place in modern pest control for using these things.

“It’s totally lazy, people don’t use them properly and it is such an inhumane death.”

He said the image of the two dead garden birds was a reminder of how dangerous the traps could be to all kinds of wildlife.

“You need pretty strong glue to hold a magpie. They’re pretty powerful birds.

“We’ve had cats caught on them. You have to shave the cat to get it off the glue board. People don’t realise how cruel these things are.”

SSPCA workers attended the trapped magpie and sparrow in Wishaw.

But Mike said the traps were an issue right across Scotland, including in Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Fife and Angus.

“These things are widely available on the internet. It could be your street or my street,” he said.

The Scottish Government has committed to banning the devices during this parliamentary session.

Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said: “Our intention is to ban the sale as well as the use of glue traps.

“However, there are implications arising from the Internal Market Act, which can undermine decisions made by this Parliament. That includes in devolved climate and environmental policy.

“We intend to work through these issues.”