Every student and staff member knows about our infamous mouse problem, but the focus remains on eating bans and announcements that students need to be more mindful of their trash. We rarely discuss the manner in which the school administration is ridding the school of our small and furry tenants. The method might surprise much of the student body.

When one first comes upon a glue trap, it seems relatively harmless. These glue-laden pieces of paper are unobtrusive, non-toxic, and easily disposed of. These are some of the reasons they were chosen to manage our school’s infestation.

However, glue traps are deceptively simple for the amount of pain they inflict upon mice and other small animals. When mice get stuck in the glue they are not dead. Manufacturers of glue traps instruct users to throw the trap into the trash when they’ve caught a rodent.  The animal then dies of starvation or dehydration in the bottom of a trash barrel.

Other mice rip off their skin and fur in order to escape before being discovered on a trap. Still more gnaw off their own limbs to free themselves. Unluckier mice get their noses stuck in the glue and suffocate, which often lasts several hours.

But there’s a cruelty-free alternative to glue traps that has yet to be explored by our school’s administration. It doesn’t involve toxic materials and therefore poses no danger to students and staff.

Plastic mousetraps that lure the mouse into an enclosure and prevent it from escaping are widely available online. The rodent can then be released elsewhere or more gently euthanized.

There is growing support for a more humane method of rodent eradication; members of School Within a School have been working to raise awareness about the use of glue traps, and exploring various alternatives for rooms on the 4th floor. Perhaps this movement will spread throughout the rest of our community.

Since we students and staff lured these harmless creatures into this building with our ample food trash and lazy or careless disposal behaviors, we must take responsibility for our actions and adopt a gentler method of mouse eradication.