Update: VICTORY! Mackenzie’s Home Timber and Hardware Drops Cruel Glue Traps!
Following a campaign by PETA Australia, which included letters and calls from activists, Mackenzie’s Home Timber and Hardware has followed the lead of its parent company, Danks, and stopped selling the sticky death traps.
As a result, fewer animals will suffer lingering, painful deaths on glue traps. Thanks to all the activists who contacted the store and helped make this victory possible.
A glue trap is a cruel device consisting of a piece of cardboard or plastic that is coated with a sticky adhesive. Indiscriminate in their torture, they trap any animal unlucky enough to wander across their path. Snakes, lizards, marsupials and even kittens can be among the unfortunate victims of glue traps.
PETA Asia-Pacific and PETA Australia have asked hardware stores around Australia about their policies regarding glue traps. Most hardware stores, including Bunnings, Big W and Kmart, have confirmed that they do not stock these inhumane devices.
Con Dekazos, general manager wholesale of Home Hardware’s controlling company, Danks, wrote to all the stores after PETA Australia contacted him strongly recommending that group retailers discontinue the sale of these devices. But despite this request, Mackenzie’s Home Timber & Hardware in Goondiwindi, Queensland, is still selling glue traps.
The Australian Bureau of Animal Welfare has reported that “the use of glue traps raises serious animal welfare concerns”, and Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have all banned them for public use.
This distressing video demonstrates how animals who become trapped in the adhesive can suffer terribly as they struggle desperately for their lives. Animals may tear their flesh, break bones, chew off their own limbs and become still more entangled in the adhesive, only to die exhausted, frightened and injured from shock, dehydration, asphyxiation or blood loss. Research shows that death sometimes takes more than 24 hours.
Not only are glue traps cruel, they are also an ineffective way of keeping rodents out of your home, as they do not deter the animals from entering in the first place. Preventative measures combined with non-lethal traps when necessary are much more effective and humane than resorting to violence against these gentle animals.
If you want to help, you can call or write to Mackenzie’s Home Timber & Hardware in Goondiwindi at [email protected] or on (07) 4671 4033 and politely ask the store to take glue traps off its shelves. You can also check out your local hardware stores and, if you see glue traps for sale, speak up for the animals by asking the store manager to remove them and stock only humane live traps instead.
Posted by Claire Fryer
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