October 4, 2010 | 5:59 PM | By

Protecting Rodent Families– Humane or Insane?

FILED UNDER: Government, City Council

This is not the humanitarian approach to trapping wildlife indoors. Eek!

If you had told me that this was from the Onion, I would’ve believed it. Via WTOP:

D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (Ward 3) introduced the Wildlife Protection Act, which would require people who trap wild animals that get into your house – like rats, mice, squirrels, possums – to follow basic humanitarian guidelines…But one part of the bill had reporters asking a lot of questions at D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s monthly press briefing.

“If I have some squirrels or some possums in my attic, I’m not frankly concerned about preserving their family unit. Moreover, how can I identify what their family unit is? This is in the bill!” government watchdog Dorothy Brizill asked.

The D.C. Council will vote on the Wildlife Protection Act on Tuesday.

Okay. I rescued a puppy from the Humane Society. I’m a vegetarian (although it’s a cultural thing I was born in to, not a choice I later made). I pray that Michael Vick never plays for my beloved San Francisco 49ers because it would be tough to root for him. But I must admit, that when rodents invaded my house last year, I was barely concerned with preserving their familial units. Maybe I’m selective about the mammals I love? Guilty as charged.

I left my last neighborhood (Georgetown) because two pregnant mice moved in, had dozens of little mice and destroyed my home over the course of several months. It was hell. I even got sick from it. The exterminator the building owner retained was utterly ineffective and wholly unconcerned with the cruelty of using glue traps; that’s his handiwork you see in the picture accompanying this post. I feel like there has to be some middle ground between his sworn love of adhesives (which trap mice and then allow them to squeak and scream until they die…not brutal to listen to, AT ALL) and Councilmember Cheh’s concern for protecting rodent family units.

About the author

DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi. View all posts by Anna →

  • TheGoriWife

    I'm a NOVA-ite, so my comment is totally useless here. But! I had six (SIX!) groundhogs living under my front porch this spring and I trapped one, hoping to relocate them one by one to somewhere that was not under my porch. I called FFX Co. animal control only to be told it's against the law to disturb the habitat of a wild animal. No moving. And they wouldn't come out to do anything about it either, since it wasn't a dangerous animal. My ONLY legal choice was to cart them down myself to their shelter, and pay $25 each to have them euthanized. (Six of them!) I couldn't catch them all before the babies were weaned so now my neighbors will probably have the same problem come next spring.

    Anyway. Not about DC, but I feel the pain of stupid municipality thinking about pests.

  • dcentric

    No worries about being a NOVA-ite. While the blog is DCentric, we're still neighbors and for all I know, you may work in DC. :)

    SIX groundhogs! My goodness. What a story. So glad you commented.

  • GavinM

    You'll find that mice and rats are actually exempt under these proposed laws. Every animal deserves a quick dispatch – to torture an animal to death on any trap *should* be illegal anyway.

    Glue traps should be banned anyway. They are horrible. It shouldn't be legal to stuck small mammals on glue, and let them starve to death (that is assuming they don't die from the physical trauma of pulling/biting their limbs off first). And if you did hear them squeak and scream, then why didn't you just put them out of their misery? You don't have to hear that “until they die”, you could do something about it you know?

  • dcentric

    Well, in the case to which you are referring, we couldn't find the glue trap…until we smelled it. That's hardly unique; not being able to locate a trap happens quite frequently. Please don't assume that I didn't try to do something. We did put the one pictured out of its misery. The whole process was unnecessarily cruel and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

  • GavinM

    It's a relief you think that way. When I hear “glue trap”, I usually assume the worst.