A local wildlife rescue is strongly condemning the use of glue traps for pest management.
Glue traps can cause wild animals to die “painful deaths by dehydration, starvation and exhaustion,” according to the Burnaby-based Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C.
Glue traps are small boxes with adhesive coating meant to catch small rodents like mice.
The number of animals injured by glue traps admitted to the rescue is on the rise, said Wildlife Rescue in a news release.
It’s a more than 87 per cent increase since 2019.
The rescue has seen more than 30 glue-trap-injured animals admitted this year.
In 2021, there were 27 such animals admitted, 12 in 2020 and 16 in 2019, showing a clear upward trend and significant uptick, according to Wildlife Rescue’s communications coordinator Tayelor Martin.
Animals that have been injured by glue traps include crows, other species of birds, squirrels and bats.
Wildlife Rescue recently admitted a crow which had been caught in a glue trap.
It would have died “a slow and agonizing death” if humans hadn’t intervened, said the news release.
“Removing the glue trap from the crow was no simple matter,” said Jackie McQuillan, wildlife rescue support centre manager, in the release.
“Simply pulling it off would painfully rip the feathers from its body. A gentle and specialized procedure had to be used to prevent this crow from incurring further injury and severe feather damage.”
Wildlife Rescue encourages alternative solutions to pest management, suggesting people reach out to an AnimalKind-certified company for assistance.
