Pest control methods targeting rodents, birds, and other animals deemed economically harmful cause significant welfare suffering that is rarely scrutinized compared to other forms of animal harm.
Pest control causes enormous but largely invisible animal welfare suffering. Anticoagulant death involves extensive internal hemorrhaging over multiple days. Glue trap death involves exhaustion, dehydration, and often self-injury as animals attempt to free themselves. More humane alternatives exist for most pest control applications — snap traps, CO2 units, and non-toxic exclusion methods — and can be equally or more effective. Secondary poisoning of non-target species further extends the harm.