By Kim Doner | Photo compliments of Chelsey Gundlach and WildCare
I began writing for TulsaPets a year ago when
I submitted an assortment of topics I thought would interest
animal lovers. Some of my ideas inspired me tremendously while
others came from the knee-jerk response to a personal experience.
Let’s face it: certain subjects make us uncomfortable.
It’s a lot more fun to write about things that bring a smile as
opposed to a squirm. Soon after suggesting today’s idea,
my enthusiasm for it waned.
Until last weekend.
Until, as a wildlife rehabilitator, I got three calls in a row.
Until I just couldn’t shake the god-awful feelings I had from dealing with the neglect and pointless cruelty I encountered.
Traps. What humans do to animals to capture and control.
Here, my plan is to guide you in making informed and humane choices—so you don’t have to call me.
The three calls came in through the WING IT phone (WING IT being a wildlife rehabilitation network in the Tulsa area for compromised native animals). We work with veterinarians, game wardens, the zoo and the public to choose the best actions for wildlife welfare, and our licenses and training qualify us to house, feed, treat, enrich and release our “patients” once they are ready to live where they belong. They come to us from many circumstances; what’s heartbreaking is
how many of those circumstances could be avoided.
Especially traps.
Call #1: The phone rings; another rehabber is near tears. A man had left a glue trap hanging on the patio to catch flies, and a hummingbird had flown into it.
She’d followed the procedure for helping the little one, something only trained people should do as any inept tugging dislocates shoulders, breaks legs or snaps a wing. As she worked, she ached to see a rainbow of brilliant, miniature feathers mired in the goo where he had tried to free himself. My heart sank when, minutes later, I received the simple text: “He died.”
One of nature’s living jewels was gone. Was it worth it?
Hummingbirds aren’t the only victims of glue traps. We’ve received flying squirrels, bats and several other bird species, too. Again: don’t try to free them. Take the victim to a vet or wildlife rehabilitator. If the damage isn’t extensive, the animal might recover with a rehabber’s help once initial cleanup is accomplished—but that means more time in glue removal, bathing, nutrition, caging, monitoring, and, in particular, it means suffering. To them, we are enormous predatory monsters; they are stressed every single time we are around, and that’s under the best of circumstances.
Do I despise the use of glue traps? Actually, I don’t; I despise the “abuse” of glue traps. What I recommend is placing the trap inside of a bird cage or some kind of wire mesh structure that’s open enough to let bugs in but small enough to prevent anything else. Another idea: purchase a different kind of trap, such as the disposable, hanging, baited trap that’s activated by water. The flies can’t resist, and you throw it away when it’s full. The stink is mitigated by the dark satisfaction of watching the thing fill up. Bwahaha.
Call #2: A family in distress. Thinking they could snag roaches by laying fly paper beneath their patio tables, they’d snagged a baby bunny. The little one had rolled against the sticky side and, in complete terror, fought against the strength of the goo. He’d apparently been hurt; there was blood. Bunnies are fragile, and their skin is loose. Fur and skin easily tear away from their bodies; it’s called “de-gloving,” synonymous with skinning or flaying. If the skin tear is extensive, the animal usually dies, but
if it’s lucky enough—and I use the term loosely—the edges can be pulled back and super-glued by a skilled vet. The recovery is hard. The experience is painful.
Reptiles and amphibians can walk across fly paper and get caught; being as how their center of gravity is low, the paper can end up twisted onto their faces, gluing eyelids open or closed or blocking a nose.
Removing this stuff is tricky and should never be done by the public. Trained vet techs and rehabbers will take hours to gently tease the skin, scales, fur or feathers away from the adhesion with a specialized solvent, sprinkling flour on cleared areas so resticking doesn’t occur. But a better idea is to ensure it doesn’t happen in the first place. Consider what you “don’t” want to catch as much as what you “do” want to catch with this stuff, and plan accordingly.
Call #3: A gentleman from a lovely suburban neighborhood had been watching a vacant house from his window and noticed something was wrong. Someone—and, since the house was vacant, no one knew who— had left a trap in the backyard. An adult raccoon had its front leg caught in it.
The heat index was over 100 degrees. There was no water. There was no food.
And did you catch the word “vacant”? There was no one monitoring the trap.
This kind of trap is called a “getter.” It’s made to crunch a paw as the animal reaches for bait. After 24 hours (sometimes less, sometimes more), permanent damage occurs.
It had been more than 24 hours.
Whoever set that trap broke the law, which requires that “any” trap be checked every 24 hours. But, in this case, the trap’s owner was unknown, and an animal was needlessly, perhaps fatally, crippled. Had our helpful game warden been able to find the trap’s owner, a hefty fine would have been imposed, but do you think ownership would be claimed here?
Regardless of the legal ramifications, the morality behind this is appalling. Pets get loose in neighborhoods. Had someone’s errant kitten gone into that yard, the same fate as the raccoon could’ve happened—or worse. What if a child discovered the trap and tried to “help” the animal caught in its jaws? What could go wrong there?
Humane traps are one step up, but there’s nothing humane about them when ignored for a week. Death by dehydration is agonizing and, again, illegal with consequences of
substantial fines. Homeowners have the right to trap and remove mammals that harm their property (native migratory birds are excluded), but too often they treat the symptom and not the problem. My advice? Ask yourself why this animal is attracted to your property.
Here are a few example problems and solutions.
Problem 1: “An ugly old possum keeps stealing our precious kitty’s food! It probably carries rabies, and we just know it will terrorize the neighborhood and hurt our toddler. We want it gone.”
Solution: Keep and feed your cat inside. Letting cats roam is against municipal law. Possums don’t carry rabies, possums are nocturnal, and possums eat ticks (and what on earth is your toddler doing anyway? Trying to eat cat food, outdoors, at night?). Quit offering them catered meals from your back porch, and they will move on.
Problem 2: “Squirrels are in our attic; they’re chewing the wires and will burn our house down!”
Solution: This truly is a threat. Under no circumstances should a homeowner ignore such a problem. If timing is October through early January, observe where the squirrel accesses the attic. Throw moth balls all over the attic floor or sprinkle cinnamon or chili powder, run bright spotlights into corners, and play loud music during the daytime to run them off. Then seal the opening.
If the invasion happens between mid-January until the end of September, hire a reputable animal control company to find the entry and catch the mother and babies. Only then, seal it.
Once the entry is blocked, the family can most likely be released together and nearby. Granted, mom will still be scared to pieces and frantic to shelter her babies, but she will at least know the neighborhood and have a better chance of survival.
How do you know if you’ve caught a mother? Lift the cage above your head and search for distended nipples. They are mammals after all.
Bottom line: nature abhors a vacuum. If you remove one animal, you’ve left space for another one to replace it. And they will.
They’ve chosen your property because it offers what they want: safety, shelter, food, water or heat. Can you blame them? Don’t move them; change the attraction. Build and hang squirrel houses. Buy and hang bat houses. Put bird feeders at the back of your yard. Plant low, dense shrubs and allow an area of your lawn to grow clover and dandelions. Set bird baths on the ground near your back fence. Keep fresh water available yearround. And maybe consider living with them instead of against them.
Then, buy some binoculars and enjoy your wild neighbors. ■
