California Must Ban the Sale and Use of Glue Traps

To Governor Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature:

We are calling on California to enact a statewide ban on the sale, distribution, and use of glue traps designed to capture rodents and other vertebrate animals.

Glue traps do not kill animals quickly. They immobilize them and leave them terrified and struggling, sometimes for hours or days. Trapped animals may tear away their skin and fur, break bones, or gnaw at their own limbs in desperate attempts to escape. Those who are not rescued can slowly die from dehydration, starvation, suffocation, blood loss, or exposure.

These traps are also indiscriminate. Birds, lizards, snakes, squirrels, bats, and household pets can become stuck to them. Wildlife rehabilitators must then attempt painful and difficult rescues, and many of the animals cannot be saved.

Glue traps should not be defended as necessary for public health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically advises against using glue traps because the frightened, struggling rodents will defecate and urinate, potentially increasing people’s exposure to disease.

California would not be acting alone.

The California cities of West Hollywood, Ojai, Culver City, Ventura, and Laguna Beach have already approved bans on the sale and use of glue traps. The Australian state of Victoria prohibits their sale and use for trapping animals. Ireland prohibits their use, Scotland’s ban on possessing, supplying, and using glue traps for catching vertebrate animals took effect in 2026, and England prohibits setting them to catch rodents except under a limited licensing system. New Zealand has also prohibited standard glue-board traps except under strictly controlled exemptions.

If individual California cities and jurisdictions around the world can recognize that these devices cause unacceptable suffering, our entire state can do the same.

Humane and more effective pest-control methods are available, including exclusion, sanitation, secured food and waste, building repairs, and other forms of properly managed trapping. A statewide ban can include appropriate protections for enclosed adhesive devices designed exclusively for insects and incapable of trapping vertebrate animals.

California has long presented itself as a leader in animal welfare. Yet these devices designed to hold living animals in place as they panic, injure themselves, and slowly die—remain available on store shelves throughout much of our state.

No animal should be tortured simply because they are small, unwanted, or misunderstood.

We urge Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature to:

Prohibit the manufacture, sale, distribution, and use of glue traps intended or capable of capturing rodents and other vertebrate animals.
Require retailers to remove these products from California shelves and online marketplaces serving California residents.
Promote effective integrated eco-friendly pest-management practices that address the causes of infestations while protecting people, pets, and wildlife.
Establish meaningful penalties and enforcement measures to ensure compliance.
Several California cities have already taken this compassionate and commonsense step. Now it is time to protect animals throughout the entire state.

Governor Newsom and California lawmakers: Please end this preventable suffering and ban glue traps statewide.

Sources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: How to Trap Up to Remove Rodents
PETA: California cities and international jurisdictions that have banned glue traps
City of Ventura: Glue-trap ordinance
West Hollywood municipal glue-trap prohibition
Government of Scotland: Glue-trap ban
Animal Welfare Victoria: Prohibition on glue traps
United Kingdom: Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022