Glue traps are still a thing used here to trap rodents, but it didn’t end well for three community cats at Redhill who ended up being the ones unsuspectingly trapped instead.
Photos of these cats being trapped in the glue traps outside Hao Minimart in the Redhill area were uploaded by administrators of the Cats of Redhill Facebook page on Saturday.
The page said out of the three cats, two of them had to be sent to the veterinarian for further treatment after being stuck in those sticky traps.
According to the page, the glue traps were reportedly installed by pest control company Rentokil at the request of the minimart to solve the rodent issue there.
However, the glue traps were removed after a concerned resident spoke to the pest company to get rid of the traps.
Glue traps are legal to use in Singapore but due to earlier incidents where a cat died after being stuck in a glue trap, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) issued guidelines on how to use such traps responsibly.
One of the guidelines states that the trap must be used in enclosed spaces to avoid the trapping of non-target animals and that these animals if trapped, must be released unharmed and have the glue removed from its body with cooking or baby oil.
They should also be sent to a veterinarian, if necessary.
According to the Cats of Redhill page, the page’s resident cat caregiver had tried to persuade the minimart owner once to remove the glue traps once but it did not materialize.
It is not known if Rentokil installed these glue traps in open spaces, going against the AVA guidelines.
The glue traps issue was in the news a few months ago, when a community of cat caregivers in Yishun urged AVA to outlaw glue traps after a cat was found trapped in the sticky mess.
Coconuts Singapore has reached out to local representatives from Rentokil Initial for comment.
