PETA has asked The Home Depot to stop selling a notoriously inhumane product that causes immeasurable animal suffering—glue traps. Glue traps are some of the cruelest pest-control devices on the market today, and The Home Depot is profiting from them. Animals who get stuck to these boards often suffer for days before they finally succumb to starvation, dehydration, self-mutilation, and shock. Patches of skin, fur, or feathers are torn from their bodies as victims struggle frantically to escape the relentless adhesive. Many animals chew off their own limbs trying to free themselves, and others get their noses, mouths, or beaks stuck in the glue and suffocate.
Glue traps do not discriminate. “Nontarget” animals routinely fall prey to these cruel devices. PETA fields calls on a daily basis from distraught customers who have discovered that birds, squirrels, and even their animal companions have become hopelessly stuck in glue traps. When the inevitable occurs and their children, spouses, housemates, or coworkers hear the screams of trapped animals, they often try in vain to release the animals, but it’s impossible, and their efforts cause even more pain and distress. The best thing that can be done for glue trap victims is to find the nearest veterinarian who can euthanize them as soon as possible.
In 1997, PETA wrote to The Home Depot’s corporate headquarters and urged the company to immediately cease its widespread sale of glue traps, and as a result, PETA received The Home Depot’s written assurance that the company would cease selling glue traps in its thousands of stores.
The Home Depot’s promise was an empty one.
In August 2005, when PETA learned that The Home Depot had resumed selling glue traps, we contacted the corporate headquarters again, but numerous letters, phone calls, a scientific paper and copies of veterinarians’ affidavits attesting to the cruelty of glue traps, photos and video footage of victims, and various appeals have apparently fallen on deaf ears. Not even the fact that other companies—including CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons, and Safeway—banned traps has persuaded The Home Depot to do the right thing and get rid of the traps.
