Oct 27, 2011 – Treat Them With Kindness
QUESTION:
I have a client who owns a hotel in the Caribbean. She follows Buddhism and abhors the idea that I have to kill living creatures. For years I was not allowed to put out any rodent baits or traps. Due to a recent increase in rat sightings I've convinced her to let me use traps (glue and snap), but no baits as she feels that they will suffer too much. Is there a humane way that I can quickly kill the rodents that are still alive in the traps?
ANSWER:
Well this is an interesting one. I have no problem whatsoever with people feeling sympathy for other living creatures, but sometimes wonder if there is just a mild hypocrisy there. I myself have taken criticism for killing butterflies, and those who are angry that I do this appear to be angry because I have killed something "pretty". Those same people don't seem to have the same moral outrage over killing mosquitoes or ticks, so is it only pretty things that deserve to live? When a U.S.-based animal-rights group loudly criticized the President for killing a fly, advocating a catch and release policy instead, do they hold the same catch and release policy for bed bugs and head lice? It is important for people to recognize that there often are times when living things become intolerable, and begin to compete with humans for health and livelihoods, and at that point they may need to be killed.
Fortunately, your customer does seem to recognize that there is a point where these peridomestic rodents must be eliminated. To leave them in and around this hotel in any numbers could jeopardize her business and the health of her customers. As much as you can provide good exclusion on the structures at this hotel the better the situation, but there will still be someplace the rodents manage to enter. Hopefully no one in our professional industry enjoys watching any animal suffer, so we all should make the effort to kill pest animals quickly and in the most humane manner possible. Traps should be checked regularly after setting so that dead animals can be removed as quickly as possible to prevent odors, flies, and the possibility of their parasites (fleas and mites) wandering away into the structure. Animals that are captured but still alive should be dispatched quickly, so there is your question. How do you do this in some manner that other people will consider to be "humane"?
First of all, even the most active animal rights group in the U.S. will at least concede that rodents will, at times, need to be killed, and they appear to recommend the use of snap traps as the most efficient and humane method. Properly caught a rat or mouse will have its neck broken and will die instantly in a snap trap. Obviously this does not always happen. Glue traps are not favored by these groups, and in fact they campaign strongly against their use. However, we who do this for a living recognize the challenge posed by domestic rats and mice and the fact that we need to use all the tools possible to capture and remove them. To allow rats to roam freely inside a structure is to risk serious contamination of food, destruction of wires and other structural elements, and even possible attacks on people. The use of glue traps may not look pretty to some people, but it may be the more effective method in some circumstances.
So, again, how to quickly kill the rodent captured but still alive in a snap or glue trap, and to do so in a manner that pleases everyone. This may not be possible, so you should do so where other people do not have to watch. I love a good steak, but personally don't want to watch the cow being slaughtered. Drowning is one option and is quick. The trap with rodent can be dumped into a bucket of water and held immersed. A more painless method might be to gas it with car exhaust, but this takes time and the trapped rodent continues to be caught on the trap for awhile. Clubbing it on the head could be very rapid, but clubbing a rat on a glue trap could be messy, and if you don't hit the right spot the first time the rodent may just be stunned and not killed. You are not going to be allowed to carry anything yourself that you could inject the rodent with, so perhaps drowning would be the fastest and most successful method of killing the rodents.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I have a client who owns a hotel in the Caribbean. She follows Buddhism and abhors the idea that I have to kill living creatures. For years I was not allowed to put out any rodent baits or traps. Due to a recent increase in rat sightings I've convinced her to let me use traps (glue and snap), but no baits as she feels that they will suffer too much. Is there a humane way that I can quickly kill the rodents that are still alive in the traps?
ANSWER:
Well this is an interesting one. I have no problem whatsoever with people feeling sympathy for other living creatures, but sometimes wonder if there is just a mild hypocrisy there. I myself have taken criticism for killing butterflies, and those who are angry that I do this appear to be angry because I have killed something "pretty". Those same people don't seem to have the same moral outrage over killing mosquitoes or ticks, so is it only pretty things that deserve to live? When a U.S.-based animal-rights group loudly criticized the President for killing a fly, advocating a catch and release policy instead, do they hold the same catch and release policy for bed bugs and head lice? It is important for people to recognize that there often are times when living things become intolerable, and begin to compete with humans for health and livelihoods, and at that point they may need to be killed.
Fortunately, your customer does seem to recognize that there is a point where these peridomestic rodents must be eliminated. To leave them in and around this hotel in any numbers could jeopardize her business and the health of her customers. As much as you can provide good exclusion on the structures at this hotel the better the situation, but there will still be someplace the rodents manage to enter. Hopefully no one in our professional industry enjoys watching any animal suffer, so we all should make the effort to kill pest animals quickly and in the most humane manner possible. Traps should be checked regularly after setting so that dead animals can be removed as quickly as possible to prevent odors, flies, and the possibility of their parasites (fleas and mites) wandering away into the structure. Animals that are captured but still alive should be dispatched quickly, so there is your question. How do you do this in some manner that other people will consider to be "humane"?
First of all, even the most active animal rights group in the U.S. will at least concede that rodents will, at times, need to be killed, and they appear to recommend the use of snap traps as the most efficient and humane method. Properly caught a rat or mouse will have its neck broken and will die instantly in a snap trap. Obviously this does not always happen. Glue traps are not favored by these groups, and in fact they campaign strongly against their use. However, we who do this for a living recognize the challenge posed by domestic rats and mice and the fact that we need to use all the tools possible to capture and remove them. To allow rats to roam freely inside a structure is to risk serious contamination of food, destruction of wires and other structural elements, and even possible attacks on people. The use of glue traps may not look pretty to some people, but it may be the more effective method in some circumstances.
So, again, how to quickly kill the rodent captured but still alive in a snap or glue trap, and to do so in a manner that pleases everyone. This may not be possible, so you should do so where other people do not have to watch. I love a good steak, but personally don't want to watch the cow being slaughtered. Drowning is one option and is quick. The trap with rodent can be dumped into a bucket of water and held immersed. A more painless method might be to gas it with car exhaust, but this takes time and the trapped rodent continues to be caught on the trap for awhile. Clubbing it on the head could be very rapid, but clubbing a rat on a glue trap could be messy, and if you don't hit the right spot the first time the rodent may just be stunned and not killed. You are not going to be allowed to carry anything yourself that you could inject the rodent with, so perhaps drowning would be the fastest and most successful method of killing the rodents.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
