Mumbai – Following an appeal from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India), Wellness Forever, India’s 3rd largest pharmacy and lifestyle retail chain, stopped selling glue traps – trays coated with a sticky adhesive that ensnares small animals, who can suffer for days before dying – at its more than 400 stores and on its website. The move comes after 32 states and union territories across India prohibited the manufacture, use, and sale of glue traps in response to PETA India’s efforts. Amazon India, Meesho, Flipkart, Snapdeal, and JioMart have also removed listings for glue traps after being contacted by PETA India. And Rajmandir Hypermarket stopped selling glue traps at its stores across the national capital.
“Animals caught in glue traps face a hideously slow and agonising death as they struggle, panic, and rip their own skin off in a desperate attempt to escape,” says PETA India Corporate Affairs Liaison, Umang Sharma. “PETA India commends Wellness Forever for protecting wildlife and other small animals from these vile devices and calls on all other retailers to follow suit.”
Wildlife – including birds, snakes, lizards, mice, rats, and squirrels – and other small animals like kittens, who get stuck in the glue struggle desperately to escape. Some animals chew off their own limbs in their desperate attempts. Animal stuck on the boards ultimately succumb to shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss. They continue to produce urine and faeces, through which pathogens including hantavirus, salmonella, and the bacteria that cause leptospirosis are transmitted, posing a major health hazard. Glue traps are also largely ineffective because they neglect to address the source of the problem: as long as food remains accessible, more animals will move in to take the place of those who have been killed.
PETA India advises only long-term way to control rodent populations is to make the area unattractive or inaccessible to them by eliminating their food sources, seal rubbish containers, and reducing hiding places. PETA India advises ammonia-soaked cotton balls or rags will drive rodents out (they hate the smell). Once out, entry points can be sealed using foam sealant, steel wool, hardware cloth, or metal flashing. Where rodents need to be removed from homes, this can be done with humane cage traps which must be checked daily and the animals released safely a distance away from the home.