Straits Times
Online STForum
Feb 25, 2009
Ban use of glue traps
I REFER to the article headlined "66 rats killed in blitz at Skate Park" in The Sunday Times (Feb 15).
While I acknowledge that the rat menace must be controlled, I was disturbed to read that cruel methods such as glue traps were being used to kill the rats.
Animals caught in such traps may take days to die. Rodents caught in glue traps have been known to gnaw off their own limbs in attempts to escape, with some suffering dislocated bones or having bits of their skin torn off.
Some are thrown into garbage bins alive to die slowly from dehydration, stress or suffocation.
Glue traps are indiscriminate and also ensnare non-target animals such as birds, lizards and other small animals.
In countries such as the United States and Britain, animal activists have campaigned for a ban on such devices, and some Australian states have enacted regulations to ban their use. Why are they still used in Singapore? Glue traps are inhumane and should be banned.
Jeslyn Long (Ms)
