Shops from across England selling cruel glue nets are telling customers how to use them illegally, an undercover investigation has revealed.
Pet cats, Hedgehogs And wild birds are all accidentally caught on equipment, and heartbreaking photos Animal The one who was struggling to free himself, has inspired widespread resentment.
A black-white in 2020 The cat had to be kept down After sticking to the four glue mesh, which left him in pain with “frightening” injuries.
In 2021, a baby fox got stuck on a glue mesh in Edinburgh, causing his skin and fur to badly damaged, and the rescue team spent hours to remove the glue to save the animal.
The glue is designed to catch the mesh – but does not kill – mice and mice. They struggle for hours or days on the ultra-fierce adhesive, and some tears or bite the organs trying to escape.
Rod Often by closing their mouths or nose with glue, or dehydration, starvation or tiredness.
Just a year ago, the use of a glue net without a license was banned, and criminals could be fined or jailed – but Selling a net is legal,
Hundreds of thousands are sold every year in Britain, the Parliament was told during a debate before the ban.
Last year, RSPCA 40 reports received Animal The glue got stuck on the mesh, and over 200 reports in the last five years. Stuck animals included wild birds, Hedgehogs And pet cats.
Charity Human World for Animals UK, who conducted an undercover check, says that it believes that hundreds of stores are still selling them – even though it is a criminal offense for customers to use them.
Shopkeepers for charity are 50 independent or called Dye Or hardware stores were chosen randomly in England, and found that 23 – 42 percent – of them sold the trap to the public. Prices only £ 1 to £ 3.99 in London in Manchester, with an average of about £ 2.
None of the shops selling them told the investigators that it was illegal to use a network without a pest-control license.
All 23 shops stated that it would be okay to set the mesh out, despite the pain of birds and cats and the risk of getting roughly stuck.
When the shopkeepers asked what they should do with the mice sticking to the mesh, nine shop assistants suggested that animals could be alive on the net, which would be a criminal offense, the charity said.
Two stores selling mesh – one in East Yorkshire and in a Norfolk – refers to animal stories that chew their own organs that are trying to escape.
A shop assistant in the East Sussex, when asked how a trapped mouse can be killed, said: “I usually roll it and drown it.”
A shop assistant admitted that there would not be “kind”.
Depending on 42 percent, researchers estimate that 3,000 independent hardware stores of England sell about 1,260 glue nets.
Human World for Animals UK, east Human Society International UK, who is calling to ban the sale of gadgets, stated that it is believed that most shop workers were unaware of the law.
Clair Bass of Charity said that there was a possibility that hundreds of shops were “selling cruel gum trap to members of the public, which may be unaware that they could face criminal allegations if they use them”.
“It is especially related to the fact that some shopkeepers are suggesting people that they can leave animals slowly on a trap to die, or even immerse them, there will be offenses under both. animal welfare Act, “he said.
Legal flaws made fun of a licensing scheme for professional insect-controllers, Ms. Bas said.
Secret shopkeepers reported that none of the five shops surveyed in Wales sold the glue nets and all explained that they were illegal and/or cruel and suggested more human options.
The British Paste Controllers Association has urged the UK, Welsh and Scottish governments to ban the sale of gum to the public.
Three big Britain Dye Chains do not sell glue nets for mice or mice.
A spokesman of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We always look at the unnecessary suffering of animals, and last year the crime was committed to use the glue mesh to catch rodents, until this is done under a license with strict conditions that control their use.”
The British Independent Retailers Association has recommended online for retailers that preventing the gum net from being sold for illegal use.