One of the Nation's Largest Banks Shows a Big Heart for Small Animals
For Immediate Release:
March 29, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
San Francisco — San Francisco–based Wells Fargo is getting an award for a practice that has nothing to do with dollars and cents. That's because after learning from PETA about the cruelty of using sticky glue traps to kill mice, Wells Fargo has banned the devices from its 6,200 locations. For rejecting cruel pest-control methods, Wells Fargo will receive a Compassionate Company Award from PETA and a big box of vegan chocolate mice.
"It is wonderful to see one of the largest banks in the country weigh the suffering of the smallest and most vulnerable animals," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Thanks to Wells Fargo's decision to stop using these extremely cruel traps, mice, birds, and other small animals will be spared a terrifying and painful end."
Glue traps are pieces of plastic or cardboard coated with a strong adhesive. After getting caught in the traps, panicked animals struggle to escape—often breaking their bones and ripping the flesh, fur, and feathers off their bodies in the process. Some animals chew off their own limbs in an attempt to free themselves, and others get their noses, mouths, or beaks stuck in the glue. The more the animals struggle, the more they stick to the traps, only to die from exhaustion, injury, shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss. Glue traps are also ineffective and fail to address the source of the problem—more mice simply move in to take the place of the animals who have been killed.
Wells Fargo's decision means that 16 of the nation's top 25 financial institutions contacted by PETA have now agreed not to use glue traps.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.