The MSPCA released photos this morning of "Elma," an adorable four-week-old kitten who had gotten stuck in a household glue trap, an inhumane device that immobilizes its victims--typically mice and rats--and ultimately causes their deaths by starvation, dehydration, suffocation, or mutilation as they struggle in vain to set themselves free.
Happily for Elma, she was brought to the MSPCA's Animal Care and Adoption Center in Boston, where the agency's staff worked for hours to save the hapless 12-ounce kitten. "Our staff worked late into the night to remove the toxic glue from Elma, and unglue her tail from her leg," explained MSPCA Adoption Center Director Amanda Kennedy. "Following her recovery, we hope to have her available for adoption within the next month."
Ms. Kennedy wants to publicize Elma's plight in an effort to educate pet owners about the dangers of glue traps, which inflict tremendous physical and emotional anguish on both rodents and unintended victims, such as indoor cats, dogs, and rabbits. According to the MSPCA, "poisons and sticky glue traps are especially inhumane, causing intense suffering of target and non-target animals, and should not be used. They can take days to kill, and often cause an agonizing death."
Elma is not the first unintended feline victim of a glue trap. Indeed, there have been several reports of incidents such as hers throughout the world in the last year, including one involving "Sticky," a kitten in the UK who was similarly ensnared by a glue trap and was eventually rescued last August, and a tiny tortoiseshell kitten in Korea, who would have been doomed to die a horrible death but for having been discovered by two fishermen, who got her unstuck and nursed her back to health.
For a list of the MSPCA's recommendations as to how to remove mice, rats, and wildlife in a humane manner, click here.
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