WeHo bans glue traps for rodent control
West Hollywood has banned the use and sale of glue traps for rodent control. This newly adopted city ordinance makes West Hollywood the first city in the state with a glue trap ban.
The ban is intended to spur the use of more humane traps and encourage preventative measures such as cleanliness, keeping trash well monitored, and adding weather stripping and door sweeps to homes and buildings to keep rodents outside.
The traps use a non-drying adhesive that causes anything that comes in contact with it to become stuck, causing eventual death due to starvation, or suffocation. According to PETA, glue traps often affect birds, cats and squirrels as unintended targets.
"Glue traps are one of the cruelest methods of rodent control. These traps cause prolonged suffering as frantic animals attempt to escape, tearing off their own skin in the process. Death can take days," wrote PETA on its website.
The CDC also warns against the use of glue traps as trapped animals produce urine and feces, which increases the risk of human sickness.
More humane measures for trapping animals are recommended. For vertebrate animals, options include snap traps, live traps, and electric traps, which have a higher chance of killing rodents instantly. Live traps, also known as catch-and-release traps, capture animals in a device through the use of single or multiple entryways that snap shut, trapping the animal inside. Once captured, the animal can be safely released to another location.
