ANIMAL welfare activists have slammed Birmingham City Council over its use of ‘cruel’ and ‘inhumane’ sticky traps to catch rats and mice.

Rodents stick to the glue boards when they walk over them and face a slow and painful death waiting hours until a pest controller can put them out of their misery.

The charity Animal Concern Advice Line, or ACAL, has written to council leader Mike Whitby urging him to stop the using boards to control pests in council buildings.

Spokesman John Robins explained why the boards are inhumane: “It can be many hours before the legally required 12-hourly inspection of the traps takes place. During this time the animals suffer extreme stress and pain and may even chew through their own limbs in an attempt to escape.”

ACAL also claims that it was misled when council head of environmental health Gavin Tringham told them that the boards were not being used and were previously used only on rare occasions.

Mr Tringham told them: “We have not recently used sticky boards, are not currently using them and are not aware of any sites where we will use them in future.”

But in a follow-up request under the Freedom of Information Act ACAL found that the City Council had ordered 500 of the boards and used 50 of them the day after their reply from Mr Tringham.

Mr Robins added: “Even if unconcerned about the cruel fate of these animals, I hope people will be very concerned about misinformation being peddled.”

A council spokeswoman said that at the time of the initial inquiry there had been no recent use of the traps, but this changed by the time of the follow-up.She said: “There is no truly humane method available to kill a substantial infestation of these pests. We have a duty towards our staff to protect them from this public health hazard, as well as a statutory obligation to contain pests. Mice carry many pathogens such as salmonella and viruses.

“They are incontinent and if left to run around it is highly likely that surfaces and foodstuffs will become contaminated.”

Treatments conform to pest control guidelines and 50 boards cover a single treatment. None of these treatments kill the rodents quickly and their deaths by any of these means will inevitably be unpleasant,” she added.