Animal Cruelty

I am at home, took off early because I was too upset to stay at work. Before I left I sent an e-mail to the CEO and other administrators:

Subject: Animal Cruelty at (Work)
From: "Shale Stone"
Date: Wed, August 22, 2012 11:42 am

Animal Cruelty at (Work)

I just witnessed a rodent stuck in one of those cruel glue traps. He was breathing hard and squealing. Everyone responsible for those hideous torture devices should have been made to watch this creature's suffering. I am pounding this keyboard so hard, my nerves and adrenalin so shaky that I am going home lest I curse or somehow be more inappropriate than this e-mail which is written with much restraint.

There was a time when I was younger that I would have stomped on that poor creature's head to end its suffering. I can't bring myself to do that any more, so I now am dealing with the conflict that I let him die an agonizing death. If a small dog were stuck in a sewer, the whole city and fire department would work all day to get him out and it would be on the evening news. And yet we subject other animals to a hideous death and don't even think of it.

I am going home to sort this out. Plan to be back tomorrow and hope I don't ever have to see this cruelty again. There must be a better way.

ASPCA

Rodent Control
The ASPCA supports humane methods of rodent control and especially prevention through blocking entry into homes and businesses and utilizing good sanitation and garbage containment systems. When these are unsuccessful or impractical, well-designed lethal snap traps, electrocution traps and fast-acting poisons are to be utilized. If lethal methods are used, extreme care must be taken to ensure that pets and nontarget animals are not harmed. The ASPCA opposes the use of glue traps and toxins that cause pain and prolonged suffering.

Shale Stone
Administrative Assistant

I don't have a problem with traps to kill outright mice and rats, but those things that glue the poor creatures feet down and leave them to starve to death make me gag. I couldn't believe it when I first saw them in the store. You are so right that is cruelty of the worst!

I had an idiot of a landlord who tried to use one of these to catch a mouse in my apartment. Not only was it cruel for the mouse but he placed it behind the refrigerator where my cat could have gotten into it as well as the mouse. I gave the guy Hell on both counts.

I had no idea he was going to do this at all. He had been working in my apartment on some plumbing, saw the mouse and laid the trap while I was at work and so I didn't know about it until I came home that evening and saw the 'frige was slightly askew.

If the mouse had gotten caught it then would have served as tantalizing bait for my cat. She would have gotten stuck as well. I shudder to this day even though it was about twenty years ago and both cat and mouse are long deceased. People can be so incredibly stupid.

I think this method of rodent killing should be banned any way you look at it.