# I pit people using rat poison unnecessarily. (Mercy killing of mouse) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 8, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615 "2012-07-08T18:42:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/101 "2012-07-09T18:15:11Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Tell that to a barn owl! Poisoning is a better way to exit life than other typical wildlife deaths? What a bizarre statement! If only the poison remained in the victim, instead many poisoned rodents do end up as food for other animals and birds of prey, such as Barn Owls, who end up dying a very unpleasant atypical death. They eat rodents, they will eat poisoned rodents as well. I don’t disagree with you which is why I’ve used humane traps or quick kill traps in the past. The one time I had to use poison I used a Warfarin product. It’s not totally safe but as a first generation poison it has a much [lower risk of secondary poisoning](http://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/content_images/pdf/Rodent_Control_21.pdf). So, my point wasn’t about the validity of using poison, it was about the stupidity of bewailing death by anticoagulant as being so horrid. Compared to way the average mouse checks out its not too bad. The vast majority of living creatures in this world don’t get a choice as to how to die but I bet if they did they would rank it the following way: 1. In the arms of a lusty mating partner 2. quick , painless, unstressed . . . . thirst with discomfort and stroke (Warfarin) . .disease (typical mouse death) . .starvation (typical mouse death) . . .limbs ripped off by a predator (typical mouse death)\* . . . Last. Dying any way while being forced to listen to **Jules27** and **Scumpup** insult each other - OK they don’t all lose limbs but you get the death by violent predator part, right? ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/102 "2012-07-09T18:38:45Z")
> [@Jules27](#): > > You shouldn’t be shooting things if you can’t finish them off when a shot doesn’t. :rolleyes: I’ll take that under advisement. On second thought, fuck 'em. Whatever gets rid of them is OK by me. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/103 "2012-07-09T18:52:46Z")
For several years we tried all the “humane” methods - we put food in rodent proof containers, sealed cracks, etc. Problem is, when the whether got cold the little beasties didn’t care if there was food in the house or not, it was WARM! We got tired of having our stuff destroyed, of finding nests, and so forth. There was the morning I went in the bathroom to take a shower and stepped on a mouse - yes, they had become that accustomed to living with us they no longer ran away as promptly as they should. We tried snap traps - which usually but did not always work. Sometimes they figured a way to steal the bait. Sometimes it didn’t come down on their head but on a limb, leading to a bleeding, screaming mouse dragging itself and the trap around while we frantically tried to catch it. Also, the little buggers will turn cannibal, apparently. We tried glue traps but didn’t like the struggling/noise so we had to dispatch any caught. And we still had the problem of partial captures desperately trying to flee with a trap attached to them. For awhile we had two-three parrots that became mousers which helped, except there was no way they could keep up with the rodent masses. Because we have birds getting a cat is not an option. Finally, we went to poison. It has been the ONLY thing to really keep this problem under control. On the rare occasion we find a mouse in the open in distress we dispatch it immediately, but for the most part we no longer have nesting, sounds of mouse activity at night, destroyed possessions, mouse shit piles in odd corners, or the rest of it. Sorry about that, mice. I don’t have anything against them, but I refuse to have them in MY nest and, as noted, the problem isn’t so much food as available warmth and shelter in my residence. On the rare occasion we have caught an animal in the house live and unharmed we have released it unharmed. So far that’s several deermice, a vole, two bats, and a squirrel. We have not yet succeeded in capturing a _Mus musculus_ unharmed. It’s not like we get our jollies hurting small creatures. It’s not like we didn’t try alternatives. It’s not like we don’t care about secondary poisoing - we do, and we don’t want it to happen, and try to minimize the risk. Poison is really what worked for the mouse problem, though. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/104 "2012-07-09T20:00:11Z")
I live in a farm house that stood empty for more than a year before I bought it. The prior occupants left everything (food, etc) and simply left. So, I’ve dealt with a rodent infestation that was bad enough that if you cleaned the mouse droppings from a silverware drawer, there would be new droppings within days. This was true of all cabinets, drawers, furniture, you name it. I have a Jack Russel Terrier who is my number one defense, but because of her, I can’t use poisons and am not keen on other traps. My second line of defense are two cats who consume a mouse in less than two minutes (they are on their own to hunt their own food, so it is serious business for them). Between these three, there was no way they were ever going to overcome the population. What finally worked for me was cedar chips (the stuff you buy as pet bedding). The mice I have will not go into any drawer, shelf, etc where there are cedar chips. So I have sachets all over my house and chips thrown down under cabinets and behind furniture and anywhere that I’ve seen evidence of mice. When I pull stuff out to do a ‘good cleaning’ I throw out the old chips and put in new ones. Now, the only time I see a mouse inside the house is when the cat has carried it in to eat indoors. Unfortunately, a lot of times they like to jump up on my desk and eat in front of me. So, I’m still working out how to convince them to eat their meals outside where they’ve found them. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/105 "2012-07-09T20:19:49Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Jules27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@Jules27](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jules27)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/106 "2012-07-09T20:53:31Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > I’ll take that under advisement. > > On second thought, fuck 'em. Whatever gets rid of them is OK by me. At least finish them off. “Shoot to wound” gives hunters a bad name. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/107 "2012-07-09T21:14:34Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Snap traps can be cruel, too. > > We had a rat family living in the ceiling crawl spaces here at work. I set out two snap traps. > > One worked as expected, catching the guy right behind the ears. > > But the other caught another rat by the back end. The rat bled all over the place. I think it took hours for it to die. I was going to point this out. Really, the mice want to stay in the house and there is no nice polite way to convince them to leave. Any method of pest control has the potential to lead to lingering, unpleasant death. So, what would people like Jules27 have us do? Just live with the little buggers? I get the feeling he’s never dealt with a real infestation, just like the OP. ---
**Author:** ![pojimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@pojimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pojimba)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/108 "2012-07-09T23:39:58Z")
Google Ad: Death With Dignity. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/109 "2012-07-10T00:17:53Z")
I’m curious how the OP could be confident that the mouse she was picking up was not rabid, instead of poisoned. **Maastricht** , I do hope you weren’t bitten at all. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/110 "2012-07-10T00:20:03Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I’m curious how the OP could be confident that the mouse she was picking up was not rabid, instead of poisoned. **Maastricht** , I do hope you weren’t bitten at all. No rabies in The Netherlands. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/111 "2012-07-10T00:26:54Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Traps, poison, air guns… Had a young squirrel in my house. Solid hit in the temple, 500+ FPS with a BB. Nothing. Hard jab in the ribs with the end of a 2x2. Nothing. Wife wouldn’t let the Little Girls perform their life’s work because she was afraid it would claw up their faces and this was their first time with anything bigger than a mouse. Daughter finally caught it and released it by the bike trail. Next day I saw it (distinctive coloring) in the middle of the street, taunting drivers to try to kill it, saying, “You don’t scare me. I survived **dropzone** ’s house.” Lesson: Arboreal mammals are tough so they can fall out of trees with no damage. Fortunately, rats and mice aren’t nearly so tough. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/112 "2012-07-10T01:52:59Z")
Mice are cute…when they’re outside. Inside my house, they’d better be dead. Fortunately most of the time, they’re in the basement – it’s been rare that they’ve been upstairs. (The worst was the time one of my cats decided to bring a live one into my room in the middle of the night) They carry disease, they chew things up, and I don’t want them in my house. I’ve got six cats, so I’m not too worried about it. > [@Jules27](#): > > Cats are moronic little fuzzballs though, that don’t have any sets of morals. They probably don’t understand the mouse is “living” and “suffers”. It’s just a toy to it. It’ll do the same thing to a toy mouse as it would a wild one, because it can’t see the distinction. But yeah, if it were my cat, I would have intervened and put the animal out of its misery. If can I stop the pain, I will. > > BTW, is your cat bored and overfed? Housecats don’t seem to have the ruthless efficiency that a wild cat would. That is, not wasting energy playing around it, but kill it then and there and gobble it up. They do it because they’re animals and it’s instinct. Nature isn’t pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/113 "2012-07-10T02:23:17Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I’m curious how the OP could be confident that the mouse she was picking up was not rabid, instead of poisoned. **Maastricht** , I do hope you weren’t bitten at all. Small rodents do not carry rabies. > [@](#): > > Small rodents like squirrels, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, chipmunks, rats, and mice) and lagomorphs including rabbits and hares are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to transmit rabies to humans. From the Centers for Disease Control. [http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/other.html](http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/other.html) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/114 "2012-07-10T03:40:17Z")
Want 'em dead fast and painless? [Zap them.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEAMT7eU35k) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/115 "2012-07-10T03:41:13Z")
> [@Jules27](#): > > You realise that live feeding can be dangerous for the snake, right? There is such a thing as pre-killed/ft. Some snakes will only eat live food – they won’t eat anything that’s been pre-killed. Look, if I find a live mouse in my house, I’ll try and catch it and put it outside. I have no desire to hack the thing to death, nor do I want it running around the house. (The traps are in the basement) However, I’m not going to shed a tear if one of my cats happen to get it. (Well, as long as they don’t bring it into my room in the middle of the night – alive. At 2am. Thanks a lot, Maggie.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/116 "2012-07-10T03:49:26Z")
Mice. Wonderful. They will eat damn near anything. There was the lady that had a 3 day old car. Car would not start. Damn mouse ate through the positive battery cable, no start. Lady was not upset that she had to pay, she was upset that we would make a car with stuff that mice eat. Umm, lady mice and rats will eat everything but concrete, and concrete is not very good to build a car out of. Or the cars that I have seen that have had multi-thousand dollars in repairs for mouse infestations. The largest $ charge I have seen was $11K, but before I got there they had a $17,000 dollar repair for mouse damage. I know of one XC-90 Volvo that was totalled by the insurance company as the repair outstriped the actual value of the vehicle. Do you think any of the people that had to pay for these repairs think mice are cute little animals? Every single one of them is now a firm believer in nuke them from orbit, it is the only way to be sure. Not to mention the Hanta virus, and the plague. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/117 "2012-07-10T05:08:15Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Mice. Wonderful. > Every single one of them is now a firm believer in nuke them from orbit, it is the only way to be sure. But they’re just like humans really…and they didn’t ask to come into this world as mice…and what you’re proposing is just cruel. How can you live with yourself??? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/118 "2012-07-10T05:26:27Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > But they’re just like humans really…and they didn’t ask to come into this world as mice…and what you’re proposing is just cruel. How can you live with yourself??? > 😃 Actually the winter that the 11K mouse repair came in, I was considering swapping out the WD-40 in the shop for butter flavored Pam, and the silicone sealant for peanut butter in an effort to boost business.\* \*for the humor impaired, that was a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/119 "2012-07-10T05:46:13Z")
> [@Jules27](#): > > At least finish them off. “Shoot to wound” gives hunters a bad name. Shoot the fucker in the head, and it squeaks and goes between the logs it was standing on when I shot it, I can barely _see_ it, when I go to the other side and look, and it runs and hides _somewhere_ in the wood-pile. Yeah, right. I’m going to go digging through that wood-pile to finish it off. If you want to, you’re welcome to come here, and move the wood for me. I’ve wanted that shit gone since last year. Me? I’m going to let the fucker crawl off to die. Fuck 'em. It ain’t “hunting”, it’s “pest control”. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615/120 "2012-07-10T05:51:17Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Take _Party All The Time_ and substitute “My girl wants to” with “My cat wants to.” I was feeling a little disgusted with myself for reading this entire trainwreck of a thread, until I came across this post. Then I felt entirely disgusted with myself. Thanks for the world’s most annoying earworm, dude! For the record, I am a soft-hearted animal lover, and I have used poison on mice. Because they’re vermin. They eat everything. They piss everywhere. They carry diseases. They’re destructive. Sure, they’re sorta cute, but I don’t want them in my house.\* And yes, if I find one that is dying from exposure to poison, I’ll flush it to reduce its suffering. But I’m not losing any sleep over the poor widdle meeces. \*With four children at home, two still in diapers, I have all of the ravenous, destructive, incontinent, cute disease vectors I need, thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-using-rat-poison-unnecessarily-mercy-killing-of-mouse/627615.md?page=7)