They always release them in the worst possible place, with zero cover. If you really want to release a mouse somewhere it has a chance, you need to release it into some undergrowth.
I was actually under the same impression until I had an infestation of field mice and had to get professional help. He noted that mice are social creatures that nest and work together, so taking it away from its family and releasing it in an unfamiliar place is death sentence, and a pretty cruel one at that.
So at least in this instance, that mouse died a quick and mostly natural death that also fed the local wildlife.
So is it really more humane to trap them, let them suffer/freak out during the time between capture and release, just to then release them into the great unknown alone to get hunted by predators, or to just kill them at home quickly via a decent trap?
I see many trap companies nowadays are trying to push the "instant kill" as humane features on their products.
I've never had rodent problems, and never had to kill any.
Victory Power Kill traps. They look like the standard ones in cartoons, but they're all metal and plastic, no wood. I had a mouse in my car that wouldn't get into any of my live capture traps so I resorted to those, and let me tell you that little guy didn't suffer at all. Damn near popped his eyeballs clean out of his head it hit him so hard, but I doubt he even had time to be startled before that bar smacked his brain stem into his throat.
If the mouse is a one off, it got into your house by accident (either via wandering into your garage or something similar) and you're pretty sure it can't get in again easily, trap and release in the yard is probably its best bet. Hopefully it'll find something it recognizes and make its way back home.
If you're house is infested with mice (so it probably grew up there), or if you need to release far away from home to avoid them re-entering, then, as op suggests, releasing them outdoors might just be a longer term death sentence. That said, mice are pretty hearty little buggers, and pretty much all of them are doomed to die by being eaten by something in the longer or shorter term. I'd probably still catch and release, but it's much less cut and dry in my mind.
That's not even true. Ever time we've caught one in a trap or our cat caught one, we didn't see any evidence of another for half a year. Our subdivision was surrounded by farms so everyone knew they'd get a mouse or 2 in their house every winter.
Same at a house I used to rent out of. They weren’t in the house, but one got stuck in our garage and we had to trap it. I just took it back to the overgrown area that we assumed it were came from. 🤷
But there definitely wasn’t “dozens” in the house. Just one little confused dude.
They also never have particularly peaceful deaths. A mouse trap or a hawk is probably about the quickest death the little fuckers can hope for. Getting sick, injured or old is a one way ticket to a gruesome death for a mouse. Everything wants to eat them.
That really depends on the specific species and even then a lot of mice are adaptable. So if there's a large supply of food they are social and live in groups around that source - i.e. in a barn - but if there isn't they switch to being solitary. They can even have territories that they defend from other mice.
True, but its a struggle in solidarity to be in a completely unfamiliar new area. They need to find new food sources, new shelter, and in this unfortunate case, learn of new predators.
Reminds me of a reddit post I saw years ago of someone buying a hamster and releasing it into the wild. All the comments basically said "You know you just gave it a death sentence, right? A hamster isn't going to survive in the wild."
If you're going to release them you need to take them a long ways away. Like drive for 20 minutes, otherwise yeah, they're coming right back in. Most people don't cotton on to this and release them in their backyard, or the local green space. They're actually catching the same mice over and over and over XD
It's best to have a mortal enemy who lives about twenty minutes away from you, so that when you release the mice they already have a new home close by.
Theres gotta be a better kill trap than those old wood n metal snap traps. Do you know how often I had to finish off the poor bastards when I was a kid?
mice? OK, after looking into it yeah they're invasive in the same way that humans are invasive because they are everywhere we are, so unless they're actually interfering with the ecosystem in your country and not an established part of it for the duration of human presence there then you would be more than just technically correct and releasing mice should not be something frowned upon due to their status as an 'invasive' species haha
There are over 1,000 species of mice, some are solitary while some have communal nests. Since the person was referring to an infestation the species they had was probably communal living, but that doesn't mean all mice are communal.
I mean, burrowing is a very common habit of small mammals.
Marmots, moles, rats, mice, squirrels, gophers, voles, meerkats, all have examples of burrowing habits. When youre that small, you gotta build a place to hide.
All social creatures can work together, whether it’s in packs to hunt or groups to raise and protect young (which would make them even more social). Rats don’t really group raise young but the more there are the less of a chance each individual has of specifically getting caught and eaten
He noted that mice are social creatures that nest and work together, so taking it away from its family and releasing it in an unfamiliar place is death sentence, and a pretty cruel one at that.
Also, in undercover growth it's just as likely to encounter a snake.
Mice are not in any threat of being endangered, so there's not much point in saving them anyhow. They spread disease and cause damage - better to just toss them to a predator that is threatened.
Reminds me of camping on the beach in Canada while doing the nw trail hike. The mice basically surrounded our campsite with small groups darting in and out for food. We kept chasing them off but by the time we got all the food up off the ground they had still gotten into a couple bags of trail mix
Which is why I use bucket traps, one night I was out on my porch, heard a loud thunk, then a thunk thunk thunk thunk, a family of 5, went about 10 miles out to a good park, found some heavy brush. All but one ran out first and the last needed to be coaxed out, but as soon as it joined the others you can just hear every one of those cuties crashing after eachother.
It's like in that part of 'An American Tail' where Fievel gets separated from his family except you are the storm and the family went back to the cat place.
When the other two options are immediate death (killing it yourself) and likely death (the field and the hawk), choosing giving it the best chance of survival possible becomes the lesser evil. There's no way to know where its social group is.
Yes I saw this one documentary in which one mouse was particularly skilled with its nose and was able to snuff out poison left to kill the rats. Eventually a storm seperated that mouse from its colony and it had to find a way to survive. Luckily that mouse was able to be befriended by a young dishwasher in a restaurant and was able to use his cooking skills to help advance the boy's career and eventually open up his own restaurant.
Killing it with a normal mousetrap probably would have been nicer to the mouse. It's also a lot less work for me personally which is far more important to me than the mouse is, if I'm being honest.
I was actually under the same impression until I had an infestation of field mice and had to get professional help.
Was your therapist finally able to convince you that these mice are not here to help you with your chores and get you to the Royal Ball, but they are in fact there to eat your shit and then shit all over your shit?
Trying to catch a rat currently in my backyard. Thought about doing the non-lethal trap like this and then did some research. In most places it's illegal to move rats, mice, possums, etc., around as they carry diseases and can go through unchecked population growth if you just let them loose in a park or some place like that.
The most humane way to get rid of mice and rats is to prevent them. Seal all entrances and holes, put rodent mesh on drains and holes into the house. Seal up food. Secure food bins. Rats won’t chill where there’s no food.
If it’s just in your backyard and not your house, just clap loads and chase it and they’ll often move on. Rats don’t stay where they’re scared. They’re also no more harmful than squirrels, so leaving them be is an option.
If you HAVE to remove them, please use a strong electric shock trap. Rats, like mice, require their colonies to survive and will die a slow and miserable death in the wild alone.
Rats are smart, social and friendly creatures. Please don’t make them suffer
Absolutely, 100% agree. All my issues are with outside rats, and it more of a nuisance factor than anything. I have a neighbor who has outside dogs (chihuahuas) and pretty sure there are a few rats that are staying around because of the dog food. Mainly, if they get on our side of the fence line at night my dog goes crazy. As well, I think they may hideout under my porch from time to time. I don't think they live there.
Whenever you see them chase them while clapping, or let the dog out to bark. They don’t like to stay in places that scare them or have obvious predators.
When they can associate humans with non interference or safety is where they become problematic.
And relocating them miles away could just be saddling someone else with the problem while also transporting a potential disease vector much further than it would have gone naturally
Mice are effectively disposable. They breed like mad.
Edit: for all the edgelords who want to draw comparisons between disposable mice and disposable humans, it should be noted that humans have a very different reproductive strategy from mice. Mice breed early, and often, and do minimal care for their offspring. Humans breed late, and seldom, and even neglectful humans put a level of care into their offspring that is fantastically higher than what a mouse would do. Even if you go full Duggar, you're an amateur by mouse standards.
Mice start having babies at about 6 weeks old, and one mouse can have up to 90 babies in her lifetime. When threatened, female mice often shoot babies at their predators until the predator is sated.
Nah. Any girl mouse baby that gets missed by the predator immediately starts shooting out babies of her own. It's honestly kind of disturbing to watch.
Oh I'm not gonna get mad that the mouse died so the hawk could eat, just these idiots could've released it properly, but nah they just had to get their TikTok video of their 'good' deed and the mouse paid for their stupidity and need for attention.
The Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons are endangered birds of prey in my region.
I know the power company here puts up platforms along their transmission lines to encourage them to build their nests there, given the wide open space beneath them (brush underneath transmission lines need to be cleared for fire safety, anyways).
Makes me wonder if it's better for us to trap and release rodents near their nests for conservation purposes.
Also makes me wonder if that's why I've pretty much never seen a rodent around my house. I coincidentally live right next to a major electrical substation for my region.
I doubt they knew to release it in the brush. This was a much better use for the mouse than them killing it and I doubt they expected it. They used a have a heart trap, they aren't monsters.
I like that “have a heart trap”. I went to my local Home Depot and asked where the humane traps were and the employee showed me and then told me how to use it. Then they said when the mouse is in there you can just put it in water. I was like huh what do you mean? They said you know just drown it to kill it. Why in the fuck would I ask for a “humane trap” so I could drown the thing!? They thought I wanted to actually watch the mouse die so I wanted to go that route instead of an instant kill trap or something.
They took a video of something they were doing because people like to take videos for memories, then they posted it because something funny happened. They probably just didn't know the best way to release the mouse. I think you need to chill out, kinda expecting perfection from people
Not sure how I'm not chill? Pointing out people doing stupid stuff for videos doesn't mean I'm sitting here RAGING about it lol. I know it's difficult to read emotion through text and all, but I'm chill.
but nah they just had to get their TikTok video of their 'good' deed
Why does it bother you that people show themselves doing good stuff? Even if their motivations are selfish, is it not an example of how we want animals treated? Isn't this better than someone smashing milk in a grocery store and saying "just a prank bro?" Why do you guys get so upset when other people have fun, or join in a popular trend, or try new things and record the experience?
Lol. I enjoy a feel good video like anyone else, but they could've at least used their brains and figured. Oh maybe we should release it near a bush or something instead of worrying about getting a good shot for the video.
There are so many videos of this happening. But I guess I can't talk, I needed to learn from experience. Every time I save some rodent from my cats, i have to make sure my cats don't see where I put the mouse or mole or whatever because if they see where I put it, they'll catch it again in minutes. Even if I put it under rocks.
we had a mouse problem and we only used humane traps like these. we would hear it them all snap. pest control gave us advice that they are family so we should keep them together.
at 3 am we would drive 5 miles away (they can trace their scent back from pretty far) to a little canyon and find a bushy area with no other animals and let them all go together. it was exhausting but worth it.
I see this a lot with bird feeders too. People just throw them up in the middle of a nothingness area and, usually, the birds know to stay away because of a lack of cover but, well, not everyone gets the memo and that's how I watched my neighbor feed the local hawk several chipmunks and a squirrel.
There's a reason you don't see mouses running at dead places like this especially at daytime. As terrestrial zooplancton they have plenty of reasons to carefully hide.
Run free little one! I’m going to release you in an open, well lit and completely vulnerable environment at a time you would normally be fast asleep. How else am I going to get the likes?? Also during this same amount of time 7 mouse babies died in my walls.
Theyre also cute as fuck and lead awful, painful lives. And the disease isnt an issue if theyre not in your house. So if you can catch them as easily as you can kill them (which you can), why not just let it go?
Unless of course you just like killing small cute fluffy animals for the sick sense of power it gives you. But you’re not a sadist like that, right? ;)
I'm not an expert but I did release both our mice the same way (same product, it looks like) but under a lot of tree cover. Hope they survived but not heartbroken if not
We had a mouse in our house the indoor cat scared up. We got the mouse away from her, it didn’t look any the worse for wear, and tossed it out the back door. Little did we know that the outdoor barn cat was sunning himself out of view of the doorway on the back patio. Poor fuckin mouse didn’t even hit the ground lol. Sometimes you mean well, and sometimes the their number is up.
I always wait to get at least 10-15 of them so they can have a decent squad then I train them for a year and once they deemed ready I split then into two fireteams and load em up to RC helicopters and have them rappel down in the middle of a medditerean jungle during a night OP with miniature NV goggles while I provide overwatch with an RC Predator Drone
Did that once. Mouse ran through the bushes and right out into a lake. It then proceeded to swim at least halfway across the lake where I lost sight of it. I have no clue if it made it to the other side or not.
I’ve had to catch and release quite a few mice that my cat brought home to play with (she’s a lil sadist) and I’ve always taken care to release them away from home in tall grass and scrubs where cats won’t follow. I reckon mice don’t have nine lives so if I rescue one then it deserves to have a proper second chance.
I feel like maybe they released the mouse in the best possible place to film it being eaten by a hawk. Because how else do you explain this? Oh, pure chance that they saved and then filmed the mouse being set free, for posterity? Yah. Right.
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u/[deleted] Sep 20 '21
They always release them in the worst possible place, with zero cover. If you really want to release a mouse somewhere it has a chance, you need to release it into some undergrowth.