I'll start this by saying I know its the cool thing to be a nihilist about this type of situation, so feel free to make all the faux-offensive comments you want. I just feel I should do this.
After a troubling experience earlier in the year, I have done everything I can in my personal life to try and educate people about Glue Traps. I was outside of my old methadone clinic smoking a cigarette while a friend of mine was signing up...Its in downtown/east l.a. so the area is a bit trashy. I looked down and saw a dead mouse stuck to a gluetrap in the gutter. No big deal.
So I go back in and wait a while, then come back out again about an hour later to smoke again. This time I notice the mouse looks like its moving a little bit.
So I go up to it and check out its situation. It starts squeaking at me like "Wtf bro?". So I try pulling it off but quickly realize this will do more harm than good. I got my girlfriend's phone and searched on the net how to remove them from these traps. It suggested a few things but all I had was moisturizer, so I used that. After about 45 minutes of slowly taking off one foot at a time I got the little dude free.
But thats when I noticed the damage. He had blood in his mouth from his teeth being pulled out (from the glue). Atleast one of it's legs appeared broken, patches of fur were missing, and there was still glue all over the animal's feet so it would accumulating tons of leaves and shit as it tried to walk.
I left a cap of water and some of my granola bar for it and left it to die a somewhat dignified death, because I knew it would never make it on its own.
Now I'm against killing of any kind (to any creature), but I would like to say that IF you feel it to be necessary there are traps that catch without killing. But since most of us are too lazy and/or careless to buy these specialized traps, ATLEAST have the human decency to use a secured spring loaded trap. The point is to kill and/or remove the animal, not to let it starve to death and tear apart its body. Just a thought.
What happens to animals caught in glue traps?
If the trap is small, a larger animal may be able to pull the trap off, though she may lose fur or skin in the process. A smaller animal has no means to escape. Larger glue traps (models more than two feet across are sold to catch snakes) can trap medium-sized animals, including pets.
It may take three to five days for an animal to die, perhaps even longer for a reptile. Some animals succumb to exhaustion, collapse face down in the glue and die of suffocation when the glue lodges in their nasal passages—a process that can take anywhere from three to 24 hours. Most often death comes from a combination of exhaustion, dehydration and starvation.
Glue Traps | The Humane Society of the United States
That's it. Thanks for listening.