Is there a product on the market that causes more suffering than a glue trap? Animals stuck on glue traps are terrified and struggle in vain to escape, often having skin, fur or feathers torn off.
Attempts to escape can also result in injured organs and broken and chewed limbs. The non-stop agony can last for days until the animal dies from shock or dehydration.
There are many other methods for rodent management, with the best being maximum cleanliness, keeping food in sturdy containers, and sealed bins for garbage. If food isn’t available then rodents won’t stay and reproduce.
Other methods for rodent management include sealing holes with ammonia-soaked cotton, and mint sprays and pouches. If traps are needed, then more humane ones exist. Furthermore, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises against using glue traps because urine, feces and blood stuck on traps puts people who handle them in contact with pathogens.
Fortunately there’s a growing list of countries, territories and entities that are banning glue traps.
James Scotto, Yorktown Heights
To The Editor: Mr. Murphy
Thank your for printing my letter on Greenburgh Police Officer Stein last week. I hope that the powers that be in Greenburgh come to her aid soon.
This letter concerns another story that you wrote- https://yonkerstimes.com/ice-makes-two-more-detentionsin-port-chester-and-peekskil/
Anyone who read your story can feel empathy for the mother and the child. But one part of the story that I was puzzled by this part of the story. “ICE agents showed her a photo of her partner, Wilmer Delgado, who they were seeking to detain. Lituma said she did not know where Delgado was. ICE allowed Lituma to return home and had her call Delgado, who told her, “Don’t say anything.”
Didn’t Mr. Delgaldo realize that Ms. Lituma and their son would be detained if he did not come? That man, in my view, was a coward and let his son and mother take the hit for him.
I wonder if he had turned himself in if ICE would have let the mother and son go. Based on what I read in the news, I doubt it. It appears that ICE is now detaining and deporting anyone who is here illegally, include those who are living with criminal illegals who ICE wants to deport.
I don’t agree with this policy, and I think the vast majority of Americans do not agree with this policy either.
But the man who ICE was looking for should have stepped up and done the right thing for his partner and his son. Instead he forced them to leave the country.
Keep telling the truth-Tracey Cargulio, Westchester voter.
Letter to the Editor: Mike Lawler, the ICE Man
Need help with ICE? If you belong to a significant voting bloc, Congressman Mike Lawler may take your call. If not, don’t count on him.
The recent surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests makes this an urgent issue for our community. Too often, law-abiding people are being detained in the streets, their families torn apart without due process. Congressman Lawler, a close ally of ICE, has intervened in a couple of cases—such as the release of Alan Junior Pierre and Yeonsoo Go—yet his choices raise troubling questions.
Although Yeonsoo Go is not a constituent of Lawler’s, she does belong to the Korean community which has a significant voting bloc in Rockland County and her mother is a minister. Alan Junior Pierre is Haitian, part of another significant voting bloc in Rockland County. Meanwhile, when Milton Guamarriga, a longtime Port Chester resident, father of three, steady worker for over two decades, and volunteer firefighter, was taken by ICE, Lawler was silent. The difference seems to come down not to fairness, but to vote counting.
Lawler has proven that he has the power to secure releases. But he does not care to fix a failed and cruel system: ICE’s indiscriminate detentions apparently fueled by racial profiling. According to the CATO Institute ICE is now arresting four times more noncriminals per week on the streets than people with convictions. And, according to the American Immigration Council fewer than 1% of ICE arrests included a judicial warrant.
America now has increasing numbers of masked officers sweep neighborhoods like Spring Valley in fear-driven raids that ensnare U.S. citizens, including children undergoing cancer treatment.
Let’s be clear: Congressman Lawler’s record does not inspire confidence. He voted yes on the 2023 Secure the Border Act, a bill that has been condemned for eroding due process, expanding DHS power, and deputizing local police in immigration enforcement. It also made it harder for immigrant youth to obtain legal protections. This is part of a broader pattern of undermining immigrant rights in service of political gain.
Lawler has a duty to demand transparency (none), legal oversight (none), and accountability from ICE (none). It is not enough to act when it serves him politically—he must stand for justice and due process for everyone.
Every person, regardless of ethnicity or political importance, deserves to be treated with dignity and fairness under the law. Until that happens, Congress—and representatives like Lawler—will continue to fail the people whom they are supposed to represent.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Lieberman, Yorktown, NY
