Pest control methods vary enormously in humaneness. Understanding which approaches minimise suffering while effectively managing pest populations is an important welfare and policy issue.
The welfare implications of pest control are largely invisible to consumers and policy-makers. Glue trap victims may be alive for days before discovery, experiencing extreme stress, self-injury, and starvation. Anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning causes internal bleeding over multiple days - a profoundly unpleasant death. These are avoidable harms - effective rodent control is achievable through snap traps and proofing. The banning of glue traps in Wales and Scotland demonstrates that policy action is achievable. Extending the glue trap ban to England and restricting second-generation rodenticides would deliver significant welfare benefits.