Tomcat animal traps

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. Hospital admission

   Made Jun 18, 2018 · , sent to the company Jun 26, 2018 · , published by CPSC Jul 11, 2018

   The product, in the report: Wooden and metal snap trap for rodent control

   I am writing to notify you of a malfunction with a Tomcat wooden rat snap trap that caused me to suffer a serious eye injury. Monday June 6th just before 2pm, in my home, a set trap was about 10 feet away from me when the hammer tripped but not due to the trigger arm operating normally. Instead, the small metal U-shaped staple that holds the trigger arm came loose from the wooden base, which triggered the trap and shot the staple straight into my right eye. The trigger arm went flying in another direction; the trap basically blew up sending metal pieces flying around the room. It was a shocking, painful, and traumatic event in which I suffered deep lacerations to my inner eyelid, lacerations to my cornea, and damage to my pupil and globe. I lost vision completely. After being seen at the nearest hospital they transferred me to another hospital with more advanced equipment and an optometry specialist. He performed emergency surgery to repair the cuts in my eye, and I will have stitches in my eyeball for a few more weeks. At that time, we’ll know how much of my vision will fully return. As we look closer at the trap, we are surprised to realize how insecure that staple is, it would be so much safer if it was longer and hammered down on the backside to secure it from coming loose and airborne with all the pressure of the springs behind it. My Father in Law has said that he’s also had that u-shaped nail come out of a Tomcat trap before but he never found where it flew to, thankfully he was not injured like I was. I’m so interested to know if other consumers of this product have had that staple come loose, if so I hope that like my Father In Law that they were not hit directly with the staple, or the metal arm. I had no idea that these traps were capable of turning into projectile weapons, I’m still in shock this happened and feel so lucky that it wasn’t one of my four children in the room who had been hit. I’m extremely concerned that there is a pretty major design flaw or hardware quality problem that could be easily fixed so the Tomcat trap works as intended. I’m very concerned for the safety of other families, children and pets who are unknowingly in danger while using these traps. As a consumer that trusted this product I would like to request a recall of these traps, until a safety modification to secure that staple has been made. I’d also like to suggest more safety warnings on the label, recommending safety glasses being worn while in proximity to a set trap would be a good idea. I have reported the incident and details of my injury to Tomcat, and requested a recall of their product. I believe the Tomcat company is taking my request seriously, but I wanted to report it to other sources as well.

   Model

   Tomcat Rat Trap (wooden)

   Serial number

   BL33528 or BLB33528

   Bought from

   Home Depot, Texas

   Bought

   Feb 18, 2018, about then

   Where

   Leander, Texas: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Age 40, Unspecified

   The reporter’s relation to them

   Self

   As this report names them

   Brand Tomcat, made or sold by Scotts Miracle Gro

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Injury, Hospital Admission

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources