Conventional pest control methods often cause significant suffering to target animals through slow-acting poisons, trap injuries, and inhumane killing methods. Evidence-based humane pest management reduces animal suffering while achieving effective control outcomes.
Pest control is an area where significant animal suffering is caused by widespread use of methods that are slow-acting, painful, and unnecessary when more humane alternatives exist. Glue traps are particularly inhumane: animals caught in them die over hours or days from stress, hypothermia, self-injury, and dehydration, or are killed by discoverers who may not use humane methods. Anticoagulant poisons cause internal haemorrhage over several days — a prolonged and distressing death. Both methods are widely available to consumers without welfare guidance. By contrast, snap traps (when correctly set), rodent proofing, and exclusion cause either instant death or no death at all. The welfare-consistent approach to pest management starts with prevention and exclusion, uses the most rapid and humane killing method where lethal control is necessary, and avoids slow-acting poisons and trapping methods that cause prolonged suffering.