It was literally a sticky situation for employees at one Lowe's store in Toledo, Ohio, yesterday, when a woman dressed as a mouse entered the store and "glued" herself to the floor. As the "mouse" screamed and writhed, customers surrounded her with caution signs reading, "Lowe's Tortures Animals."

The "mouse" was taken into police custody after half an hour of shrieking and struggling, and she was lucky. Being arrested is nothing compared to the days of starvation and dehydration that animals ensnared in glue traps suffer. The misery of glue traps is so painful that some animals even chew off their own legs in a desperate attempt to free themselves. No glue trap is humane—and there are effective alternatives. Urge Lowe's to end the torment and stop selling glue traps immediately.

Posted by Logan Scherer

lpjobs / CC

It's true: Dollar General cares—about its customers' concerns and about animals.

After we received complaints that Dollar General, which has thousands of stores across the U.S., was selling hideously cruel glue traps, we wrote to the bargain retailer. In our letter, we described how animals who get stuck on glue traps can suffer for days before finally dying of starvation or dehydration. Many victims of glue traps rip their skin from their own faces and bodies as they try to escape, and some resort to chewing off their own limbs while trying to free themselves. We also let the company know that there are plenty of humane ways to deal with mice and rats.

Dollar General responded to our letter by announcing that it will stop selling glue traps. Just like that. The company didn't hem and haw—officials simply made a compassionate decision.

Dollar General joins other large retailers, including Albertsons, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, and Safeway, that have stopped selling glue traps after discussions with PETA. Please thank the company for its decision—and then ask home-improvement biggie baddie Lowe's to follow suit.

Posted by Karin Bennett

I bet it made your Monday to read how one determined woman helped countless small animals by convincing Gelson's to pull glue traps from its stores' shelves. (Really, how dang adorable is the mouse in that post? I could stare at her all day.)

Let us make your Friday too. Check out this year's ever-growing list of companies, businesses, and agencies that have pledged to not use gruesome glue traps ever again, all because of the hard work of PETA and our supporters:

• Notables at the Party Store: Lexington, Kentucky
• AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) software company: Austin, Texas
• Central Technical School: Toronto, Ontario
• Manhattan building owners Richard and Hilde Basch: New York City
• USPS facility: Baltimore, Maryland
• JPMorgan Chase banks
• American Eagle Outfitters stores
• Virginia Beach School District: Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Knox County School District: Knox County, Tennessee
• Carroll County School District: Carroll County, Maryland
• Princeton School District: Princeton County, New Jersey
• Fashion Institute of Technology: New York City
• Lanterman Developmental Center: Costa Mesa, Orange County, California
• Ireland's Four Provinces Restaurant: Falls Church, Fairfax County, Virginia
• Local restaurant: Boca Raton, Palm Beach County, Florida
• Lowe's: West Jordon, Salt Lake County, Utah (This store stopped using glue traps to catch birds—now if only the chain would stopping selling the traps as well.)
• Circle Center Mall: Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana (birds)
• United States Postal Service: Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky (birds)

And we're waiting for the final word from the following:

• Costco: Gaithersburg, Maryland
• L.A. Unified School District: Los Angeles County, California

I'm sure there are many more establishments that we haven't heard about. Make PETA Files readers' week by leaving a comment below about any businesses you know that have sworn off glue traps.

Posted by Karin Bennett

ehow / CC

After learning that animals caught in glue traps die a slow, agonizing death by starvation—often after trying to gnaw off their own limbs in a vain attempt to free themselves—the ever-trendy, animal-friendly clothing chain has joined JPMorgan Chase in swearing off the use of glue traps in its stores.

Leave a comment below to congratulate American Eagle, then head on over to our Get Active page and let Lowe's know that it should follow AE's example and stop selling glue traps in its stores.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Our campaign to convince Lowe's to stop selling glue traps is stuck in high gear. Recently, a woman dressed as a mouse stuck on a glue trap stopped traffic in Yakima, Washington.

Then PETA member Stewart David requested that state officials in North Carolina investigate Lowe's bogus claim that its glue traps somehow "anesthetize" captured animals.

And in Charlotte, North Carolina, Lowe's shareholders gasped at the sight of our "dying mice," who were struggling to escape a giant glue trap beside a sign reading, "Lowe's: Stop Torturing Animals!"

Maybe pressure from shareholders will convince Lowe's to finally join Rite Aid, Safeway, CVS, and other big names that have taken the torture devices off their store shelves.

Posted by Karin Bennett

Phew! We have so many great protest pictures to share that we decided to hit you with them all at once. Brace yourselves:

Animal defenders of all ages turned out for our protest against the (ab)use of animals in trauma training exercises at Fort Bragg …

… including baby McCartney (named after you-know-who).

Our gaggle of PETA chicks caused quite a stir in Youngstown, Ohio, where they told the "naked truth" to passersby outside a KFC. Even the manager of the KFC was sympathetic, telling them that his son had just gone vegetarian.

Mickey and Minnie are up to their old tricks, this time at a Lowe's in Houston, Texas. A construction-induced traffic jam proved to be a mouse's best friend, providing a captive audience who eagerly snapped up all our leaflets.

It was an embarrassment of riches for Houston, which was also blessed with one of our much-coveted veggie hotdog giveaways featuring PETA's Lettuce Ladies.

Deputy Dog, I presume?

More babies! This mother and munchkin who were passing by just happened to be wearing coordinating PETA T-shirts. What are the odds?

And finally, we travel to South Korea, where PETA Asia-Pacific stole all the thunder from Seoul Fashion Week.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments on this Win It Wednesday. The winners of the humane mousetrap are Christina Eckhart, Ipstenu, and Jennifer Short. Congratulations!

It's almost spring, the time when a young mouse's fancy turns to thoughts of love. Next thing you know, you may start hearing the pitter-patter of little mouse feet on your attic floorboards. Now, we know you would never want to hurt one of these cute little guys, but we can understand if some of you don't want them setting up a love nest in your box of old LPs. That's why we're offering up three of our popular humane mousetraps for "Win It" Wednesday.

PETA's mousetraps are great because mice can be caught alive and unharmed and released outdoors. The same can't be said of glue traps, which we've been begging Lowe's for months to stop selling. It's like they don't care that animals caught in these traps can suffer for days before finally succumbing to starvation, dehydration, or suffocation.

How do you win? Post a comment with your thoughts on why Lowe's should stop selling glue traps. The three people who post the most persuasive answers will each win a humane mousetrap.

The contest ends on April 1, 2009, and we'll choose the three most persuasive comments as the winners on April 3, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Check back every Wednesday for new prizes. Good luck!

Posted by Lianne Turner

Lately, we've been stepping up our campaign to convince Lowe's to stop selling glue traps. In addition to our notorious "sexy mice" demos, we've designed a brand-new billboard, and today we're contacting officials in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Charlotte, North Carolina, to request prominent placement of the ad in their cities. We all know that the real villain here is Lowe's, but we hope that these billboards will educate the public about the cruelty of glue traps and convince people to use only humane methods of managing mice. Check out the billboard below:

Oh, and if you have any creative ideas about how we can target Lowe's next, leave a comment and let us know!

Posted by Liz Graffeo

When you have an epic battle as big as PETA's campaign to convince home improvement behemoth Lowe's to stop selling glue traps, you have to decide if you are "a man or a mouse," as the saying goes. Personally, I'm a mouse. I'm PETA's original "sexy mouse," in fact. Yes, that's me, writhing in a giant "glue trap" outside Lowe's annual meeting last year.

As a proud sexy-mouse veteran, I'm pleased to unveil the newest addition to our Lowe's campaign:

But don't worry! Our classic "sexy mice" are still hitting the streets to let shoppers know that animals stuck in glue traps can suffer for days before succumbing to starvation, dehydration, or suffocation.

Leave a comment and let us know which demonstration you like the most: the traditional sexy mouse, "Mickey" and "Minnie Mouse," or our giant rat and anti-Lowe's minivan. I think you can guess which one is my favorite.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

This little logo—which PETA is using in our efforts to urge Lowe's to stop selling cruel glue traps (archaic torture devices that trap small animals, causing them to suffer from suffocation, starvation, and mutilation)—is apparently causing big headaches for the company:

Last week, the company that manages Lowe's trademarks sent the head legal counsel for PETA a letter claiming that our logo parody infringes on their trademark rights and demanding that we stop using it.

Our legal eagles fired back with a letter saying, in short, "Umm, not quite." (Though, as lawyers always tend to be, they were a bit more technical than that.) In the letter—sent to LF LLC (which has the most generic, nondescript corporate name EVER)—our corporate counsel wrote:

[PETA's parody of Lowe's logo] is entirely consistent with the Lanham Act and no reasonable consumer could confuse any of these items as originating from or belonging to Lowe's. We do not believe that LF seriously contends than an appreciable number of consumers who see an image of a bloodied dead mouse slouching across the top of a slogan that reads "Lowe'st of the Low: Torture for Sale" would be confused into thinking that Lowe's is the source of the publication. If Lowe's is truly concerned about its goodwill, we recommend that it end its sale of cruel glue traps.

Pow! That's gotta hurt—though not nearly as much as being caught in one of Lowe's glue traps.