Small Animal Safety

Sandramole

Hi everyone,

Had a sad experience today. I went to the attic to retrieve my plastic shelving unit... You know the type, cheap plastic shelves with pop in tubing you can buy at dollar stores. Perfect for attic shelving btw. Anyways...the tubes did not come with covers to go over the tops...so its just shelves with tubes you pop in to hold the shelves up at each corner. The top of the tubes on the top shelf is open.

Apparently a tiny mouse had run across the top of the shelf and fallen into one of the tubes. There was no way for him to get out. He died in one of the tubes and there were scratches all along the inside of it where he had tried to jump to the top.

So, please place duck tape/plastic wrap/tube covers/etc. over the tops of open tubing like this when you next get the chance to prevent this type of occurrence.

Even if you are not an animal lover...there are more reasons than just the sadness of a trapped animal. Which is a horrible way to die.
Those reasons being...

1. The animal decomposing left marks on our attic floor that are permanent and not easy to fix.
2. It ruined our shelving unit even though plastic is easy to clean. It has a permanent...um..smell. We threw it out.
3. I wont go into anymore detail...just obvious sanitation reasons.


So once again remember to cover anything in your attic, animals could get trapped in...and perhaps even things in your main home, especially if you go on vacation. Take it a step farther and even check washers and dryers before turning them on. Curiosity does kill the cat.


Thanks for reading. Sorry for writing such a disturbing post. I just felt I could make a difference and prevent small deaths in some small way.

Sandramole

joed

Saw a similar thing once with a garbage can with a two way flip lid only there was more than one mouse in the bottom.

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spark plug

Sandramole (OP, Poster#1) You did the right thing by throwing the entire shelving unit out. Also, about making people aware to prevent small animals from being trapped hopelessly and helplessly. Even though mice are rodents, no one wants to see any living thing die a cruel death!!!!

Red Squirrel

If you have animals in your attic, then fix whatever way they are getting in, that's the best way to go. Stop them at the source.

spark plug

'Fraid to say! Squirrels DO get in through the roof. But mice get in through openings in the foundation and above!!

firehawkmph

Sounds like a couple of new ways to get rid of the occasional mice that try to get into my garage for the winter. "Build a better mousetrap and people will beat a path to your door."
Mike Hawkins

spark plug

The Mousetrap is only used as an example. Same goes for a food mixer or washer/dryer.!