Mustelids including stoats, weasels, and polecats are trapped for pest control and fur. Trap design and selectivity significantly influence the welfare outcomes of trapping programs.
Trapping welfare depends on trap design, maintenance, and checking frequency, creating enormous variability in outcomes between well-managed and poorly managed trapping programs. Kill traps that malfunction or are incorrectly set may capture animals in ways that cause prolonged suffering before death; checking intervals determine how long animals in live-capture traps experience confinement stress. The welfare case for trapping programs depends on the conservation or pest control benefit achieved: trapping that effectively protects endangered ground-nesting birds by controlling invasive predators may be welfare-positive overall when conservation and welfare are considered together. However, this justification requires that trap designs meet performance standards, checking is frequent, and bycatch of non-target species is minimized through selective placement.