Even though there are some monumental pressing problems facing American society at large, and Congress in particular, there is nothing wrong with any individual congressman proposing a law that addresses his personal peccadillo. After all, there is really never a good time to raise some truly petty issue, so now is as good as any. So who can blame California Rep. Ted Lieu for proposing the Glue Trap Prohibition Act of 2024 (“GTPA”) now, as wars are being fought, government is facing imminent shutdown and student debt is being shifted from borrowers to taxpayers?
But that doesn’t make it a good law. It doesn’t even make it a law within Congress’ ambit. It is one weird law, prohibiting both the sale and use of glue traps. If you somehow avoided your three felonies a day, this could swiftly up the ante.
The congressman justifies his glue trap ban on humanitarian and health grounds.
“Glue traps are ruthless, inhumane, and can be dangerous to the health of humans and their pets,” said Lieu in a statement. “There are numerous other ways to trap small animals that don’t prolong their suffering.”
Is it cruel to catch rodents? No doubt some will argue that rats and mice are living creatures with feelings just like kittens and puppies. What they feel and how they feel it is unclear, as most of us avoid special moments discussing feelings with disease laden vermin. But I digest.
The penalties for violating the specific subchapter that Lieu is inserting his glue trap ban into include fines of up to $5,000 per offense for commercial violators and $1,000 fines for individuals. That subchapter also allows criminal penalties—including up to a year’s imprisonment for commercial violators and 30 days imprisonment for private persons who violate the law.
Making videos of small animals being crushed by high heels may be protected First Amendment activity (really, see United States v. Stevens), but putting out a glue trap to catch the rats eating the food in your kitchen you plan to serve your children could land you in the federal pokey if Lieu gets his way. Oh, and snatch the money you would use to buy food for your children.
But that begs the question of how all of this affects interstate commerce, since Congress’ authority to criminalize conduct is not omnipotent (to the chagrin of both hard right and left) and derives from the Commerce Clause.
While it might be trite or archaic to raise this point, one does wonder where exactly Lieu thinks Congress gets the authority to regulate the use of glue traps in private homes. Not even a New Deal Supreme Court justice could honestly argue that placing a sticky piece of paper on your floor affects interstate commerce.
To be fair, rats often cross state lines. And the glue traps generally come from Asia, like pretty much everything else we use. But then, the breadth of federal reach under the Commerce Clause has largely managed to cover anything some representative with a modestly fertile imagination wants it to, thus making any discussion of the propriety of federal overreach somewhat pointless. If they want to cover it, they will come up with a story that will do the trick.
But why glue traps?
Obviously, some people are going to be more concerned than myself with the welfare of vermin. People also have pets or small children who might get stuck in a glue trap. In those cases, perhaps some other type of trap is more appropriate. It seems like that’s something that individuals can decide for themselves.
So long as people have the option of humanely dispatching mice with poison, electrocution, or neck-snapping metal bars, I’d also like to have the right to use traps that work without the risk of going to federal prison.
Have we reached that point in society where the humane treatment of rodents takes precdence over effectively dispatching them from our homes? In the words of the great philosopher, Phil Ochs:
Sweating in the ghetto with the colored and the poorThe rats have joined the babies who are sleeping on the floorNow wouldn’t it be a riot if they really blew their tops?But they got too much already and besides we got the cops
Maybe Ted should ponder the welfare of the babies on the floor before worrying too much about how kindly we treat the rats.
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“Not for public display. I think you got bit by spell check. In the Graf below, I think you mean “digress” not digest.”
Is it cruel to catch rodents? No doubt some will argue that rats and mice are living creatures with feelings just like kittens and puppies. What they feel and how they feel it is unclear, as most of us avoid special moments discussing feelings with disease laden vermin. But I “digest.”
Why do some people have to ruin a good and longstanding joke?
To be fair, he wrote “not for public display,” and yet I posted it anyway. So I’m partially to blame.
“digest” appears often in the Admiral’s scribbling, is kind of cute, and is also not a felony – yet.
I once saw a Rat on a glue trap in downtown Detroit. The rat wasn’t frantic or panicked. And that reminds me of a Shel Silverstein cartoon: two man are shackled together and in turn bolted to a wall about ten feet up in an all concrete cell. One says to the other….” Here’s my plan..”
I don’t like glue traps and don’t use them.
You find them all over to trap packrats but
they catch lizards that eat the insects I hate.
(I put out poison for the bugs and packrats. Is that worse for the environment? Don’t know, don’t care.)
However if my neighbor uses glue traps it’s none of my business.
This is a stupid law pandering to a small group that donates a bit to Lieu’s coffers.
I have had recent experience with glue traps and transporting them (and mice) across state lines, so I have a personal interest in this.
This past summer my wife and I and three (3!) large (really large) Maine coon cats traveled on our sailboat from Florida to NYC. Along the way we passed thru the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, in Virginia, where we think we picked up a stowaway. A mouse, which lived in our bilge all the way up to Baltimore, when my wife discovered that some of the bags of food stored in the bilge had been chewed up (she is an actual expert in this sort of thing, and wrote a book about it). The cats, who we would expect to go crazy about mice on board, did not make any noises or movements to indicate the presence of the mouse.
In Baltimore we went ashore to look for traps, and bought several of the deadly traps, as well as the sticky glue traps, which my wife prefers because they are “humane”. We installed them in the appropriate parts of the boat, and in 2 days, we caught the mouse on a glue trap. It was released into the waterfront area of Baltimore, and the cats were severely chastised for not doing the job they were expected to perform.
We saw no more mice on the tip to NYC, or back down to Florida.
Glue traps work, they don’t leave dead bodies around to bleed and make a mess, and you can release the animal into an appropriate location (Baltimore is great for this purpose).
I intend to let my representatives know about this. I think glue traps might be included somewhere in the 2nd amendment. If not, they should be.
Photos can be provided, on request.
I have to correct my comment – I sent a link to this article to my wife, and she informs me that she did NOT turn the rat loose in Baltimore. She used a plastic bag to pick it up, with the trap attached, and then she sealed up the bag, into another one, which went into the trash. She said that if we had a freezer on the boat (we do not), she would have put the wrapped bag into the freezer to dispatch the mouse. This is something that we do down here in Florida with Buffa (sp?) frogs, which are invasive and poisonous.
She commented that she would NEVER release a mouse. They carry Hanta virus and other nasty diseases, and it is best to dispatch them and trash them. And they do NOT have our best interests in mind as they make their way thru our food supplies.
My apologies for the incorrect story.
It makes sense that politicians would want to act in solidarity with their fellow rodents. Next they will make rats and mice eligible for MediCal.
“Congressman Lieu’s legislation was inspired by Democrats for the Protection of Animals’ successful push to ban glue traps in West Hollywood.”
This is such a weird amount of overconfidence that someone should check to make sure his family isn’t being held hostage by comedy writers.
Its a disgusting way to kill an animal, the same a shackling a person to a concrete wall & leaving them to die of starvation or thirst.
That alone means they shouldn’t need to be regulated against, there’s something basically wrong with the person who uses them. They’re not the sort of person to feel safe around.
Life exists on a continuum, with humans at the top and bacteria at the bottom. If a rat is the same as a human, then where do you draw the line? Is every spray of Lysol in the bathroom a holocaust?
The reality is that we treat life with varying degrees of respect, diminishing as we go down the line. An animal’s status is loosely related to its usefulness to humans. We don’t eat dogs and cats. We do eat cows and goats, but we treat them humanely. Rats and mice are further down, and can be killed indiscriminately, and if they suffer a bit, so be it. Our human needs take precedence over their comfort.
Maybe we need a Lieu-trap for Left Coast nuts and flakes to force them to mind their own damned business….(I’m on the Left Coast but fortunately not in Lieu-dicris’ district)