Thank you to Sruthi Gopalakrishnan and Charlotte Matherly for their recent article on “niche” legislation for 2025, including a bill to prohibit sale and use of adhesive-based rodent traps, commonly called glue traps, sponsored by Rep. Linda Haskins. Any person who causes a wild animal, fish or wild bird to be tortured or mutilated, either purposely or negligently, shall be guilty of a felony or misdemeanor, respectively (NH RSA 206:19-B), but a glue trap set in an orchard, field or farm stand will torture and mutilate any animal that touches it, including squirrels, rabbits, opossums, chipmunks, birds, bats, snakes, toads, salamanders, and others, without consequence.

A professional wildlife control operator who uses glue traps to remove bats from structures may lose his license and face other penalties (NH Adm Rule FIS 1001.05), but a homeowner who sets glue traps in an attic, barn or storage building that may kill endangered bats indiscriminately is subject to no accountability whatsoever. A person who collects reptiles and amphibians may do so only by hand capture or hand held net (NH Adm Rule FIS 1401.01 ), but when a dozen baby snakes perish on glue traps set in a garage, they die invisibly. Proponents of glue traps argue that they are a non-chemical “tool in the toolbox” that should remain available for pest control. But when a tool in the toolbox is obscenely cruel and inhumane it is our moral and ethical obligation to remove it, permanently.

Jean Slepian

Stoddard