P.E.I. wildlife advocates call for ban on glue traps after young squirrels injured

Wildlife advocates are urging Islanders to stop using glue traps after three young squirrels were brought to the Atlantic Veterinary College Wildlife Service in Charlottetown after getting stuck. 

Wildlife technician Fiep de Bie said the man who brought in the squirrels had not set the trap himself, but found the animals in distress and pulled them off the trap.

"They were very weak, and they were very compromised. We don't know how long they were on the trap," de Bie said.  

Her team used mineral and vegetable oil to dissolve the glue on the squirrels' fur before washing the animals with dish detergent to get rid of the oil.

"They went in an incubator, and then we gave them some fluid under the skin because they were so dehydrated," de Bie said.

"The one female was still very weak, and she died the next morning."

Good prognosis

De Bie has been nursing the two remaining six-week-old squirrels back to health, with one of them still recovering from needing to have its tail amputated.

Both had patches of fur removed by the glue when they were pulled off the trap. 

"It's not ideal to have like half a tail, especially for a squirrel, because they use it for climbing and they use it for warmth. They wrap it around their head in the winter," de Bie said. 

"But they're doing very well. They're very active, they're very inquisitive, they move around very well."

The AVC Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative have created a new information campaign to raise awareness around glue traps, given how often they catch unintended targets. 

As for the species people are actually trying to trap with the devices, "they don't die instantly. It can take hours to days before they die, and they die a horrible death," de Bie said. 

It's an awful death for these animals​​​​​.— Fiep de Bie, AVC Wildlife Service 

"They get dehydrated, and they can die of starvation. They constantly fight against the glue which they get stuck in more and more, so it's an awful death for these animals."

The pamphlet includes ideas for other ways to trap pest animals such as mice, including live traps, and a kind of snap trap that kills the animal instantly.

Trapped bats

Tessa McBurney is a veterinary student, as well as a bat biologist who works with the Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative, Atlantic Region.

She has seen several bats stuck on glue traps over the last couple of years, all of them dead by the time they were noticed. 

"Any animal is quite tricky to take off a glue trap. But when you think of bats, and their really delicate wing membranes with those long finger bones, it's really, really, really hard to remove them safely," McBurney said. 

"Additionally, we are talking about federally and in some places provincially endangered species like the little brown myotis."

McBurney said bats often get trapped on hanging vertical glue strips that are designed to catch insects such as houseflies. 

"It's possible they may even be attracted to these traps because they eat insects, right?" she said.

"So they see a trap, it has lots of insects on it, they go for it, they fly into it, and they immediately get stuck."

There are more humane options that don't result in the animal suffering for such an extended period of time.— Tessa McBurney, Canadian Wildlife Health Co-operative, Atlantic Region

McBurney said she too would like to see people stop using glue traps. 

"I would really like to see them banned, essentially, or for people to select more humane options," she said.

"As someone studying veterinary medicine, we like to use very humane methods of interacting with animals in general," McBurney said. 

"There are more humane options that don't result in the animal suffering for such an extended period of time. It's quite upsetting."

The two squirrels brought to the wildlife centre, now named Stubby and Chubby, will be released in about 10 days, when they are 10 weeks old.

"It's always nice when you can save an animal, especially after they've gone through a horrible event," said de Bie.