Shops across England selling cruel glue traps are telling customers how to illegally use them, an undercover investigation has revealed.
Pet cats, hedgehogs and wild birds have all been accidentally caught on the devices, and heartbreaking photos of the animals that suffered struggling to free themselves have prompted widespread outrage.
In 2020 a black-and-white cat had to be put down after becoming stuck to four glue traps that left him in pain with “horrific” injuries.
In 2021, a baby fox became stuck on a glue trap in Edinburgh, leaving his skin and fur badly damaged, and rescuers spent hours removing the glue to save the animal.
Glue traps are designed to catch – but not kill – rats and mice. They struggle for hours or days on the ultra-strong adhesive, and some tear or bite off limbs trying to escape.
The rodents often suffocate from glue clogging up their mouth or nose, or die from dehydration, starvation or exhaustion.
Just over a year ago, using a glue trap without a licence was banned, and offenders could be fined or jailed – but selling the traps remains legal.
Hundreds of thousands are sold every year in the UK, Parliament was told during a debate before the ban.
Last year, the RSPCA received 40 reports of animals stuck on glue traps, and in the previous five years received more than 200 reports. The animals stuck included wild birds, hedgehogs and pet cats.
Charity Humane World for Animals UK, which carried out an undercover investigation, says it believes hundreds of stores are still selling them – even though it’s a now criminal offence for customers to use them.
Shoppers for the charity visited or called 50 independent DIY or hardware stores selected at random in England, and found that 23 of them – 42 per cent – sold the traps to the public. Prices ranged from just £1 a pack in Manchester to £3.99 in London, with an average of around £2.
None of the shops selling them told the investigators it was illegal to use the traps without a pest-control licence.
All 23 shops said it would be fine to set the trap outside, despite the risk of birds and cats becoming painfully and fatally stuck.
When the shoppers asked what they should do with mice stuck to the trap, nine shop assistants suggested the animals could be thrown away alive on the trap, which would be a criminal offence, the charity said.
Two stores selling traps – one in East Yorkshire and one in Norfolk – referred to stories of animals chewing off their own limbs trying to escape.
A shop assistant in East Sussex, when asked how a trapped mouse might be killed, said: “I would normally just roll it up and drown it.”
One shop assistant admitted that would not be “kind”.
Based on the 42 per cent, the researchers estimate that of England’s 3,000 independent hardware stores, about 1,260 sell glue traps.
Humane World for Animals UK, formerly Humane Society International UK, which is calling for a ban on sales of the gadgets, said it believed most shop staff were simply unaware of the law.
The charity’s Claire Bass said it was likely that hundreds of shops were “selling cruel glue traps to members of the public who may be unaware that they could face criminal charges if they use them”.
“It’s especially concerning that some shopkeepers are suggesting to people that they could leave animals on the traps to die slowly in a bin, or even drown them, both of which would be offences under the Animal Welfare Act,” she said.
The legal loophole made a mockery of the licensing scheme for professional pest-controllers, Ms Bass added.
Of five stores surveyed in Wales, none sold glue traps and all explained that they were illegal and/or cruel and suggested more humane alternatives, the secret shoppers reported.
The British Pest Controllers Association has urged the UK, Welsh and Scottish governments to ban glue trap sales to the public.
The UK’s three big DIY chains do not sell glue traps for mice or rats.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We always look to minimise the unnecessary suffering of animals, and last year it was made an offence to use glue traps to capture rodents, unless doing so under a licence with strict conditions governing their use.”
The British Independent Retailers Association has advice online for retailers on preventing glue traps from being sold for illegal use.
