To Feel Wretched That I Put Poison Down To Kill Rats?

[TheCatsBlanket]

My very elderly aunt has rats in her garden. She is terrified of them and asked me to put poison down, which I did. Today, I went to check the rat trap box in the hedge, and I saw one of them underneath some leaves, obviously still alive but in a bad way. I feel so horrible about it, because I am responsible for causing pain to an animal, who was quietly living it's life and just because they get a bad press (probably stemming from the plague) I am now a murderer.
It made me wonder why there isn't a more humane way to get rid of them where, if they have to be killed, why can't it be instant? I stupidly googled it too, and now am more sad that they can take up to several days to die and are conscious throughout.

I know it is horrible, but you can't just leave them.
A relative of mine nearly died from Weil's Disease from rats in their garage.
If you can manage it, you could put any that are visible out of their misery. Also look into repellents.

Rat poison is awful and should be banned. The ramifications for wildlife and pets are horrific.

There isn't such a thing as a lone rat. They are very sociable and hugely prolific so don't kid yourself that Mr Rat is just eking out a solitary existence in your garden. There could be dozens more nearby (average 14 in a litter so it doesn't take long)

They carry the poison back to the nest. Not great but rats carry disease and constantly mark territory with urine,leave faeces and saliva wherever they are. You definitely don't want them living in your garden.

This thread is hideous. I’m an animal lover and a vegetarian but even I can see why you wouldn’t want tons of rats running riot over an elderly persons house. Jesus Christ. Despite growing up rurally I’ve never experienced rats in our house, but we have always had cats - does the presence of a cat deter them? Is that an option? (In London now and I adopted my cat after a cheeky bastard mouse came and sat on our lounge rug bold as brass in the middle of the day! The lazy cat has never caught anything ever but I haven’t had a mouse problem in the house, so is it just the smell of her?)

Warfarin (the active ingredient of rat poison) causes massive internal bleeding until the animal dies. Absolutely disgusting.

@LadyLindaT you can get rid of squirrels in your loft easily by buying a strobe light from Amazon and leaving it on in the loft. The squirrels can't tolerate it and will be gone within a day or two. Then get someone to seal up the entry holes.

You can get ultrasonic rat repellers for the garden - I've seen some solar ones on stakes you can plug into the ground. I couldn't face poisoning or trapping an animal.

The ramifications for wildlife and pets are horrific.

The ramifications for wildlife and pets of large numbers of rats isn't exactly great either.

There are far more than would occur naturally - 'commensal rodents' are a problem created by people and for which therefore people need to take responsibility for.

I'd get a cat to get rid of rats, I'd feel less personally guilty if the cat was the one to do the killing even if t was me that brought the cat in....

The ramifications for wildlife and pets are horrific.

What about the ramifications for humans, are they to suffer and died, just so the rats can bash in and live in peace??
Seriously you read some nonsense on here but this thread has to to the most ludicrous that I've read in a while.

I have 8 pet rats, they are amazing creatures, however they are not wild rats!

Definitely Lays traps but in future use a more humane method if possible. It's all you can do

If you use environmental health Pest Control thay can advise the neighbour to put out less bird feed. Rats spread leptospyrosis in their urine, any thing they have peed in is infectious, A bin man died though moving rubbish without gloves. My friends dog dies from a rat bite. Pet rats are lovely creatures but garden rats are disease on legs, especially in towns. There is no room for sentiment. I agree rat traps are more humane but only catch one at a time.

The risk of traps migh mean inadvertently trapping other animals

It just feels very uncomfortable that the only offers I have had to remove them are to poison them or shoot them. @LadyLindaT

Isn't this because the law specifies that grey squirrels entering human habitation have to be exterminated, it's not acceptable to catch them and release them outside. So they are not being unnecessarily bloodthirsty, just adhering to the law regarding these pests. Grey squirrels are horribly destructive and will cause a lot of damage. They aren't endangered in any way so you should harden your heart and make sure you seal up wherever they are getting in, so you don't have to go through this again.

My sister whacked a poisoned rat with a spade (livery stables), it was unpleasant but doing it a favour rather than leaving it to die slowly. (She sounds hard core but is really a softie, it was an ordeal for her but she couldn't just leave it as it was...)

@TheGoogleMum

There are no less than 6 cats live in the 8 houses closest to me.
They do fuck all on a large scale. Might catch one every so often.

We currently have a rat problem and believe they are living under our brick built shed.

DH has an air Rifle and has so far killed 20 or more but they keep coming, I have said we may have to consider poison even though I hate the idea of it but we have no idea how many there are out there.
We also have ferrets and have considered using them to arch the rate but rats tend to fight back and we don't want the ferrets to get hurt. May have to look into someone with a terrier and see if they can get rid of them.

It is probably worth getting the professionals in - they are still working. But they will just put poison down as well. The only difference is that it may be stronger, faster acting. Given how hysterical mumsnet normally gets at one mouse in a house this thread is truly bizarre. Of course you need to do something about them and poison is the most effective.

fatisnotafeeling I'd definitely call a man! 20 rats ekkk!
A litter of rats is about 14, they really fast too, if hes killed 20, that's probably the tip of the iceberg.

Rats are urinary incontinent and their tails are designed to hold the urine and make a trail. A trail of urine infected with disease.
Rats breed all year round so if they are not controlled they would take over the world! The poison generally used is designed to kill them painlessly in that it stops their blood from clotting and their blood leaks from their blood vessels and they lose body heat. It is not thought to be painful. The bait is designed to be tasty and to have a cumulative effect so that anything eating one dose of it would be unlikely to die. I had a Spinone that ate a 500g tub of anticoag bait and it barely made him fart. He didn't even get petaechial haemorrhages in his gums.

If you are going to lay bait for rats lay the grain sort. The blocks are often carried from the bait station by the rats and then they are accessable to dogs, hoggies and the like.

Given how hysterical mumsnet normally gets at one mouse in a house this thread is truly bizarre.

Like just about all MN threads there is a range of responses from various individuals with a variety of relevant experience and a smattering just emoting - posts accusing 'MumsNet' in general of 'hysteria' are ridiculous . (But yeah, obviously the OP had to help her aunt as quickly and effectively as possible).

I'm not sure many cats take on rats - we have quite a lot of cats locally including one who can regularly be seen trotting home with small rabbits, squirrels, birds etc but afaik not rats. Cats of that sort probably inflict more damage on wildlife than occasional necessary vermin control.

If we get another invasion of rats (in our side alley, right by the side door) I'll definitely suggest we try to find a 'terrier man' though I'm not sure they could work effectively in this location.

If your idiot neighbour is still dumping food out for birds then there will be a steady stream of rats. No point in the (horrible, cruel) poison if you aren't solving the source problem.
Also, given the concept of rats/mice/birds carrying disease, does anyone know of anyone that ever got ill from disease related to these species? Nope.

Someone up thread spoke about a bin man killed by Weils disease. One of the British rowers also died of weils disease. So yes people do died of Weils disease carried by rats.

Op I'd stick with the plan get the professionals in, check out environment health dept. And they might also speak with the neighbour.

Leptospirosis is vaccinated against in dogs. I've seen it in a puppy as part of my day job and I wouldn't want to see that again let me tell you Corna !

I’m your age OP, and I simply can’t kill anything anymore.
When I lived on a farm we hired a rat man who used his terriers to despatch the rats very quickly. I do think this is the most humane option. You can google it - a few people do it.

I couldn’t bear to use poison - that’s horrendous.
And please don’t kill wasps, they eat flies and are important for the ecosystem, as are spiders.

Leptospirosis killed my 7 year old dog so every last one of them can die a long and slow death as far as I'm concerned.

At the moment there will be dogs who have missed their boosters because of the reduced vet service. Afaik they should be doing puppy vacs but I bet there will be quite a lot of unvacc'd puppies at the moment.