BC SPCA pushing for ban on glue traps

Several countries around the world have banned glue traps as a way to kill vertebrate animals and the BC SPCA is hoping to see it happen here at home.

Ahead of the 2024 Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Convention in Vancouver next week, the BC SPCA is calling on local governments to endorse a province-wide man on the sale, purchase and use of glue traps.

“For years, the BC SPCA has advocated against wildlife control methods that cause prolonged suffering and endanger non-target species,” says Sarah Herring, the BC SPCA’s government relations officer.

“Glue traps cause severe pain and suffering to rodents and other animals who get caught in the traps like small birds, bats, reptiles and even pets.”

Herring’s comments are backed up by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and American Veterinary Medical Association.

The practice has been banned in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Iceland, New Zealand, Wales and parts of Australia and India, as well as in a pair of BC municipalities.

Both the District of North Vancouver and Town of View Royal have banned the use of glue traps thanks to advocacy from Saanich councillor Teale Phelps-Bondaroff and View Royal councillor John Rogers.

They worked with the BC SPCA to draft a resolution endorsed by not only the District of Saanich and Town of View Royal, but the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) as well.

“I am pleased to see this resolution heading on to UBCM and hope that delegates there will support it as enthusiastically as the delegates at AVICC,” Phelps Bondaroff says.

“Glue traps are inhumane and indiscriminate. The animals caught in glue traps suffer horrific and lingering deaths, and this is a fate experienced by target and non-target animals alike."

According to the BC SPCA, glue traps cause severe pain and suffering to not only rodents, but other unintended animals like birds, bats, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and even pets.

They’re designed to “catch animals, not kill them,” the organization explains, and people often leave them unchecked for long periods of time, which means animals can suffer for more than 24 hours before dying from suffocation, dehydration, starvation or exhaustion.

“Rodents feel pain and distress like any other animal and deserve to be treated humanely, even when lethal management is required,” a release from the BC SPCA notes.

The BC SPCA adds that the most effective and humane way to control mice and rats is rodent proofing and preventing a problem before it occurs.

When lethal control is required, however, the most humane options are snap traps or captive bolt traps because they’re designed to cause a quick death.