Serious Ethics of Pest Control

[Plague von Karma]

Recently, I ended up on the weird side of YouTube and started getting recommended weird mouse trap videos. I decided to click on one out of morbid curiosity and was shown some pretty gory stuff. Like, electric traps that would send the mouse into a tub of water they eventually drown in. It was kind of unnerving, but also eye-opening at the same time.

So I ended up thinking it over a bit, and looking at the comments there was some pretty interesting debate. Some compared laws across different countries, others bought up animal rights issues. It ended up being a really interesting discussion, which is what eventually bought me here.

Here in the UK, there's a lot of controversy over the culling of badgers, which aims to protect against bovine TB, despite there being vaccines iirc? They've gone through all kinds of inhumane methods, such as free shooting and general maiming. The general public, at least from what I've seen, doesn't really understand why they're being culled at all.

Rat poison is particularly notorious for having unintended consequences on wildlife populations. The fact of the matter is, you cannot make a poison that kills one particular species of mammal, you'll always end up killing others. Many birds, particularly owls, end up eating poisoned rats and dying as a result of it. I've heard of cats dying or, otherwise becoming severely ill, from this sort of thing as well. Some rat poisons also have adverse effects on crops and flora.

There have been some ethical forms of pest control, namely relocation. This is done with invasive species in various countries, such as the green iguanas in Florida that ended up exploding in population. I believe that was due to escaped and abandoned pets? There's even been occasions where countries straight up fly invasive species over to their native countries to assist endangered populations. There's a lot of other "safe" forms of pest control that ensure animals aren't harmed, but that's just one really.

So those are a few angles you can take in the discussion, but I'm curious about other's opinions. Chuck some thoughts here, there's a ton of different angles you can take! How about the effects of industrialisation on wildlife and how it's caused creatures like cockroaches to adapt so well?

 

[Rugi]

I'm very much biased because I'm passionate about bird conservation and honestly if there were a button that would immediately blow up every cat and rabbit in Australia, I would press it.

I think people don't understand just how harmful invasive animals can be. For a simple example in urban Melbourne when I was a kid eastern spinebills were a very common species to see in gardens. Now they're exceedingly rare almost solely because of cats hunting them.

A friend of mine in agricultural science often talks about how indian mynahs, and invasive rodents often descending from released pet population wreck shit in farms, force the hands of growers to use more dangerous extermination methods and even cause indirect harm such as cats hunting pollinators species.

Animal rights only goes so far. When dealing with invasive animals, it's honestly my last priority. Finding a method of killing invasive animals without harming native wildlife, and educating the public so that people understand why cats have to be culled and we can't just relocate or adopt them out is the main aim.

 

[Plague von Karma]

I'm very much biased because I'm passionate about bird conservation and honestly if there were a button that would immediately blow up every cat and rabbit in Australia, I would press it.

I think people don't understand just how harmful invasive animals can be. For a simple example in urban Melbourne when I was a kid eastern spinebills were a very common species to see in gardens. Now they're exceedingly rare almost solely because of cats hunting them.

A friend of mine in agricultural science often talks about how indian mynahs, and invasive rodents often descending from released pet population wreck shit in farms, force the hands of growers to use more dangerous extermination methods and even cause indirect harm such as cats hunting pollinators species.

Animal rights only goes so far. When dealing with invasive animals, it's honestly my last priority. Finding a method of killing invasive animals without harming native wildlife, and educating the public so that people understand why cats have to be culled and we can't just relocate or adopt them out is the main aim.

I'm in agreement that culling is a necessary step to deal with invasive species. However, I also believe that ethical culling should be employed, namely euthanasia. Poison, shots, and general torture is not the way to do it.

Invasive species are a big problem in many areas. For example, there's a beautiful species of iguana, the Fiji Iguana, that used to be widespread. However, due to cats killing them off in addition to rats eating their young, they've become critically endangered. This has had a nasty effect on the ecosystem as well. Tuataras have suffered in a similar way, with rats being introduced to their habitat and decimating their population. Let's not forget the Golden Toad which got killed off due to introduced fungal diseases, which bought attention to the fact amphibians are dropping like flies.

Predictably, due to this, I'm of the belief that domestic cats shouldn't be allowed outside. I often try to tell neighbours about it as there's a few rare birds that live in my area. I won't get too specific as it'd likely reveal my location, though. There's no reason to let cats out other than to show you're not actually the owner of your cat, but the other way around. If you're letting it out, supervise it and have it on a leash or something.

 

[Chou Toshio]

I would have to do more research to be more informed on the issue, but ideally genetic technology could open new ways of doing this more effectively. Like there are lots of YT videos now theorizing about using Crispr and gene drive to make specific mosquito species bear children that eventually cause all mosquitoes to be sterile. That would be a solution that only targets one species, reaches the wide population, and also would probably be a far more humane option.

I think just like any new technology one must be careful... but if the theories work in practice and are proven effective with lab study, I think island environments in particular would be good places for it to be applied.

My home state of Hawaii, islands in the middle of the Pacific ocean where no mosquitoes are native, would be a great place to hit the kill button for instance.

 

[Ashaebi]

As of 2020 there's actually a lot of non-lethal mouse traps you can create that keep those rodents off your property that you can even make them at home. If I were you i'd put a lot of these around my house and release all of them at once back to the wild if using lethal pest controlling mechanisms really concern you.

 

[Plague von Karma]

I would have to do more research to be more informed on the issue, but ideally genetic technology could open new ways of doing this more effectively. Like there are lots of YT videos now theorizing about using Crispr and gene drive to make specific mosquito species bear children that eventually cause all mosquitoes to be sterile. That would be a solution that only targets one species, reaches the wide population, and also would probably be a far more humane option.

This is actually being tried using males that inject a protein that prevents female mosquitos from living to biting age. It's a very unique approach, to say the least.

As of 2020 there's actually a lot of non-lethal mouse traps you can create that keep those rodents off your property that you can even make them at home. If I were you i'd put a lot of these around my house and release all of them at once back to the wild if using lethal pest controlling mechanisms really concern you.

I'm actually quite aware; they've been around for decades in fact! The same traps are also used with catching stray cats and such. This post isn't about "my concern", just general interest in the topic.

 

[King Feraligatr]

Know this is an older thread, but I've something relevant to the subject. I had (and still might have) a bed bug infestation in my room. Those things are as awful, tenacious, hard to kill, sneaky, etc. as people say they are. I don't notice near as much these days, but they were awful and paranoia inducing for a long time. It was so bad that I just ditched sleeping on my old bed and just slept on the couch in our living room.

But what does this have to do with pest control and ethics you might ask? Well, in some ways, we used unsavory methods against those fuckers. In addition to the much less "dubious" method of getting rid of them in vacuuming, we used pesticide spray and anti-pest bombing to kill them. I mean, I don't think we harmed our pets or other animals and I'd be glad if we didn't, but I don't really care that we used pesticides to kill these fucking bugs. They where so awful and paranoia inducing that I really just cannot care. I've mostly stopped with the spray and just leave a mattress encasement and traps on my bed legs as passive pest control (as I don't notice many of them nowadays), but still. We went for more drastic measures to get rid of these fuckers. Sure, I would've liked to just teleport them to somewhere they can no longer bother anyone, but that's unrealistic and bed bugs are just tenacious to a fault.

Comment, criticize, etc. as you will.

 

[gvmgvm40]

I think people find it morally troubling to kill other mammals, who show sentience, human-like reaction to pain, or who can form bonds with humans - cats, mice, rabbits, deer, raccoons, what have you. I don't think anyone has any objection to fighting off insect infestations, especially in their living spaces or on their own bodies. Purely going off my gut feeling, dealing with a flea or bedbug infestation feels no different than taking antibiotics to kill bacteria to me, while something like feral cat or deer culling (even though I can see how it's necessary) is stomach-churning.