San Francisco considers becoming third U.S. city to ban glue traps

More than a century after glue-trapping birds became illegal,  glue-trapping mice persists

SAN FRANCISCO,  California––Coat a branch with quicklime paste to trap a bird by gluing the bird’s feet to the branch,  anywhere in the United States,  and no matter how much nuisance the bird’s poop and squawking are,  you may be cited,  fined,  and perhaps even jailed for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Even glue-trapping bird species not covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is illegal because of the risk of accidentally trapping protected birds,  including practically every variety of songbird.

Similar legislation has been in effect in the United Kingdom since 1954,  and throughout the European Union since 2021,  having already been banned for decades in almost all member states except some in the Mediterranean region.

Ripple effects

Anyone who wants to trap a mouse with glue,  however,  can buy a ready-made glue trap at almost any supermarket or hardware store.

The persistence and widespread acceptance of glue-trapping mice has ripple effects,  including as a leading argument of animal experimenters against protecting rats,  mice,  and birds under the federal Animal Welfare Act:  if an ordinary citizen can torture mice to death with impunity,  just for being a nuisance,  why should a scientist be prohibited from doing something similar in the name of curing disease?

The only jurisdictions in the United States known to prohibit glue traps are the two California cities of West Hollywood and Ojai,  since 2023 and 2024,  respectively

Now,  Tara Duggan on April 21, 2025 reported for the San Francisco Chronicle,  the San Francisco Commission of Animal Control & Welfare is “working on a proposal for a citywide ban on glue traps, preferably for both sales and use,  though the latter would be hard to monitor.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu sought national glue trap ban

In 2024,  Duggan remembered,  U.S. Congressional Representative Ted W. Lieu,  a Democrat from Torrance in Los Angeles County,  “introduced legislation for a national ban on the sale and use of glue traps.”

(See Glue traps: the La Brea Tar Pits in your closet.)

Ted W. Lieu,  56,  was at the time vice chair of the Democratic Caucus,  making him the highest ranking Asian-American in the House of Representatives ever.

Ted Lieu introduced his Glue Trap Prohibition Act on January 17,  2024,  with co-sponsor Adam Schiff,  a fellow Democrat from the 30th California Congressional District,  also in Los Angeles County.

“Among the cruelest ways to eliminate rodents”

The Lieu bill sought “to place a national ban on the possession and use of glue traps to catch rodents.

“Glue traps – boards coated with adhesive used to catch and kill pests – are among the cruelest ways to eliminate rodents,”  Ted Lieu said in his media release announcing the bill.

“In their attempts to escape the glue,  animals may tear off their skin.  Some may even gnaw off their own limbs.  Animals who do not escape die of blood loss,  suffocation,  or dehydration.

“Glue traps also pose a public health risk,”  the Lieu media release continued.

“The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention urges Americans not to use glue traps, as ensnared rodents can spread disease.”

Glue traps “are already banned in Iceland,  Ireland,  and New Zealand,  as well as in over 100 airports across the country,”  Lieu added.

But Lieu’s Glue Trap Prohibition Act was promptly referred to the House Agriculture Committee,  where it remained to the end of the 118th Congress.  It so far has not been reintroduced in the 119th Congress.

Three baby rats

The San Francisco Commission of Animal Control took up the glue trap issue,  Duggan indicated,  at urging of member Irina Ozernoy,  “a volunteer at Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue,”  Duggan wrote,  who is now helping three baby rats rescued from a glue trap to recover.

“Glue traps are inexpensive and can be useful.  However, the commission opposes them,”  Duggan wrote, “because they don’t immediately kill their intended target, instead subjecting them to a protracted death by starvation or thirst,  and they often capture other wild animals unintentionally.

“Instead,  the commissioners argue,”  and practically every urban wildlife expert not employed in the pest control industry long since has agreed,  “preventative measures to keep rodents at bay are more effective and humane.

Non-target species

Explained Lila Talcott, founder of Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue,  to Duggan,  “Anything that gets caught on a glue trap suffers for days before it dies.  Many species will fight tooth and nail to get off the trap.  Birds will pull out their own feathers and then be unable to fly.  Lizards will lose limbs.”

“WildCare,  a wildlife hospital in San Rafael,”  Duggan continued,  has treated 43 glue trap patients from San Francisco since 2017,”  even though San Francisco residents had to pay the Golden Gate Bridge toll going both ways to get there and back.

“In that same time period,  WildCare treated 155 additional animals found in glue traps elsewhere in the Bay Area — among them gopher snakes,  skinks and scrub jays,”  Duggan listed.

“Very emotionally charged”

Pestec integrated pest management company chief executive Luis Agurto Jr. told Duggan that there is already an “unwritten rule not to use glue traps on city-owned properties,  because ‘People don’t want to come across it.  It’s very emotionally charged if you hear something suffering and squeaking,’  especially in schools,”  Duggan summarized.

While trapping birds with quicklime paste was relatively easily banned in most U.S. states within the early years of the U.S. humane movement,  banning glue traps has proved to be a much harder sell.

The Humane Society of the U.S. [HSUS],  now renamed Humane World for Animals,   tried to educate consumers about glue traps and alternatives to using them with a 1985-1990 campaign directed at getting chain stores to stop selling glue traps.

After HSUS apparently gave up,  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] took up the cause in 1994,  bringing the Humane Society of the U.S. back into the effort in 1997.

CVS, Lowe’s, & Home Depot

Pressured by HSUS and PETA,  the 5,400-store CVS drug chain in March 2006 ceased stocking glue traps for small rodents,  but only briefly.

A 2008 PETA complaint to the Federal Trade Commission about allegedly misleading advertising by the glue trap maker Motomco led to a change in the wording used to sell glue traps,  but Motomco continued to sell them through the Lowe’s hardware chain.

“During discussions between PETA and Home Depot regarding the company’s sale of glue traps,”  PETA mentioned in a 2017 media release,   “a Home Depot employee found a mouse suffering in a glue trap inside one of its own stores.

“After witnessing firsthand how animals suffer as they struggle in the traps’ adhesive,  Home Depot decided to prohibit the use of glue traps in its more than 2,200 stores nationwide.”

But that decision was as short-lived as the CVS pledge eleven years earlier.  Home Depot still sells glue traps.

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