Injured animals dying due to rat traps: animal welfare groups

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Animal welfare groups say that other animals besides rats are being inadvertently trapped in black plastic traps around the Greater Vancouver area.

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While it is described that snap traps can humanely kill rats if used correctly, they can also trap a leg of a larger animal such as a skunk, squirrel, or raccoon and cause excruciating pain for several days. The damage can be so severe that treatment centers often have no choice but to euthanize the animal.

Reports of more animals being caught in snap traps may be related to a ban on rodenticides, poisons used to kill rats and mice that also kill other animals.

In Langley, Wildlife says people have been bringing in animals injured from spring traps since about 2018, but increasingly in the last year.

Nathan Wagstaffe, CC’s Senior Wildlife Technician, couldn’t say exactly how many animals caught in quick traps have been brought into the limelight, but said “we’re seeing one almost every two to three days.”

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Critter Care specializes in the care of mammals and treats about 2,500 animals a year.

Wagstaffe said animals other than rats are being caught in the traps and unable to get them out of their foot or claw.

“They end up dragging them with them every day, causing an immense amount of damage to that poor animal’s limb,” Wagstaffe said.

Critter Care, he said, has seen animals with a nearly severed foot.

“It’s horrible,” he said. “Sometimes they wear them for weeks.”

Snap traps They are designed so that when a rodent bites the hook, it activates a bar that slides into the body. If it works properly, it can kill the rodent instantly.

Wagstaffe said that most, if not all, of the animals brought to Critter Care have had to be euthanized due to the severity of their snare trap injuries.

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Wagstaffe did not have an exact reason for the increase in animals injured by snap traps, but suggested it could be related to the rodenticide ban.

Since 2020, seven municipalities in Metro Vancouver have banned the use of rodenticides, according to information collected by the SPCA . The most common are the second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides known as SGARS. They have the unintended consequence of leading to direct poisoning of other animals, as well as secondary poisoning of owls and raptors that feed on rodents.

In July, the the provincial government banned rodenticides for 18 months while conducting a scientific review and promoting alternatives to poisoning.

In Burnaby, the Wildlife Rescue Association says it has treated 25 birds and four mammals caught in spring traps and similar traps this year.

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Sasha Rink, assistant for graphic design and communications, said in an email that the association’s hospital treats songbirds caught in glue traps intended for mice, bats attached to sticky paper intended for insects, and birds with limbs broken by traps. spring intended for rodents.

“Unfortunately, most of these traps are indiscriminate and often trap more than the intended target species,” he said.

Erin Ryan, Investigative Communications Specialist for the BCSPCA , just completed a master’s degree at the University of British Columbia in human control of mice and rats.

She said one of the problems in North America is that there are no regulations that guarantee the consistency of snap traps.

“Basically the louder the snap, the more humane it is because you are more likely to kill an animal on impact,” he said.

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“The unfortunate part is that the performance of these traps varies a lot. There is no way to guarantee which traps are better than others. “

She said that while snap traps can potentially kill rodents in a humane way, they don’t discriminate between animal species.

“If you place these traps outside, rather than inside attics and walls, you should keep them in a protected box to make sure they are not accessible to other animals,” he said.

She said there is not necessarily a tool or a trap to solve rodent control problems. Prevention is key .

“It’s really about excluding rodents from different structures and reducing or eliminating the attractants that bring them into our buildings in the first place,” he said.

The attractants are food, shelter and water.

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“If we don’t manage the attractants, they will keep coming back.”

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