Sympathy for a Mouse??

this time last year we found we had a mouse in our kitchen. the maintenance guys came out and set glue traps, and we left to visit family.

when we came back, there was the mouse, on the trap. looked like he had panicked so much he was about dead. we felt so bad for the little guy. my husband took him out to put the little thing out of its misery, and it must have died right beforehand. neither of us felt very good about that.

 

While all living creatures have their place, it does not include my home. But, I don't like glue traps. I used one once (actually set by an exterminator), and the mouse was obviously in terror. I called the exterminator's office and asked what the heck I was supposed to do, and he said to just put the thing in the trash. I couldn't do that, because the mouse would suffer more until he finally died.

Its a sad lesson of life that sometimes the thing that sounds cruel is the most humane thing you can do. Taking your baby in for immunizations is one; I always hated handing the innocent baby over for a shot. Sliding a glue trap into a Zip Lock baggie and then quickly slamming it down on the concrete floor of the garage, mouse down, is another.

There are humane traps that simply trap the mouse, and then you can take them away to a better place for them to live. Or use a spring trap that kills them pretty quickly. Peanut butter is a good suggestion, because they really trip the trap as they work to get it all off, rather than just trip it as they move away after snatching a piece of cheese, maiming and not killing them.

They tell us animals don't have the same capacity to reason and fear things in the future, but they can certainly react to their current situation. So you want to make their demise as short as possible. As nature generally goes, I think having your neck snapped quickly by a spring trap is probably a pretty good way to go. I would think it would certainly beat being batted around by a cat until you are exhausted, and then eaten alive, head first. Or snatched by a hawk and eaten alive.

Nature is dumb and cruel. We can be humane.

 

You might want to look into getting a electronic trap. It runs on batteries and when the mouse or rat goes in to eat the bait (dry kibble) it zaps the mouse with electricity and stops the heart. Quick, clean and reusable. You do need to check it everyday since you don't want the mouse to melt down in it (some have a light that blinks when it's been triggered). If you have other animals you need to put it somewhere they can't get their paws into it. These work really well and are humane.