If a vegan had a mouse in their house?!
Answers: how would you deal with it? What about a spider, or what if your house was infested with termites. What would you do about these things?
Someone asked this yesterday, so I'll reproduce the answer I gave then.
Before I do though, yesterday's question didn't include spiders. Spiders don't hurt anyone, so I leave them alone.
Being a vegan means you do what you can and all you can to minimise your contribution to animal suffering and exploitation; it doesn't mean you sacrifice your own health or safety - allowing animals to endanger your health and safety and that of your family, particularly your children, is not vegan it is irresponsible and stupid.
Though a dilemma, because you don't want to harm life, it is essential to rid your house of rodents and other pests if you have an infestation.
Unfortunately mice don't come into the house singly - they move in en masse and breed very quickly - so catching them singly and putting them outside isn't really a practical option.
If taken outside they will soon find their way back in anyway.
There is no point in being sentimental about mice and rats - they are a huge health hazard and a danger when in your home. A danger because they need to gnaw constantly and will present a very real fire risk by gnawing on electric cables. A health risk because they spread disease - they are there for your food and will contaminate that; mice urinate and defecate constantly and that will be spread around wherever they go. Each female mouse can have 5 - 10 litters per year of up to 13 young each time; each of the new born mice will be able to breed at about 7 weeks. Do the maths and see how quickly the population will increase – you’ll never catch them all.
A better option is to try and prevent pests coming in. You can get a plug-in device that emits a noise inaudible to humans but intolerable to rodents and to other pests like cockroaches; make sure your kitchen is squeaky clean, with no food scraps or crumbs to tempt them in; and try to block up any holes or gaps where rodents might get in - bearing in mind that if you can get a ball point pen into a hole, a mouse can get through it. They tend to stay away if you have a cat, too.
If having tried all the above you still get an infestation you have a responsibility to deal with it properly. Your health and safety and that of your family comes first.
I'm vegan and I would call in the exterminators if precautions failed - just as I would defend myself against any creature - animal or human - that was threatening my health, safety or life
I'd move.
I'd leave the mouse alone, or catch it and release it in the countryside, spiders I always leave alone, unless they are trapped in the bath, then I catch them and take them outside, but if y house was infested with termites I would move!!!
Keep a clean home and you probably won't see any mice. If you have a mouse in your house, is it hurting you? Are the spider's hurting anyone?. Termites........................not sure.
I live in an apartment with a cat, who has caught a couple of mice. Sadly, they did not survive the experience. I have humane traps and live across the street from a park. It has happened before, and if I catch another mouse, I will take the trap across the street and release him/her in the park. Spiders I'd probably let go. Hopefully, they'll catch some other insects.
Termites--if my apartment building had termites, management probably have to have it fumigated. I'd have no say in the matter.
Lo_mcg has pretty much made the perfect answer :)
But to add in, I would personally try to catch it and take it outside using a no-kill trap, mice carry disease and I have a little baby at home and I can't risk having litters of mice and little mice poops everywhere.
Spiders I leave alone unless there's way too many - there are 2 spiders in my house that I know of and I know where they have their webs - one is in the very corner of a closet door I don't use and the web is like 2 inches by 2 inches, it's tiny, and the other is outside my patio door, between the two doors (they're double-glassed). They catch flies, mosquitoes and ants and keep my house insect-free. If I see a spider crawling around exploring I scoop it onto a piece of paper and let it go outside.
I will kill mosquitoes because I previously lived in a Chicago-area apartment complex where a woman died of West Nile virus transmitted by mosquitoes.
Termites haven't happened yet, if they do it would be pointless to let them destroy my house, so as lo_mcg said, it would be appropriate to exterminate them. Everything in it's own place, but not everything in my place, I've read someone say before. That sounds sensible to me.
I also agree wholeheartedly with proper preventative care - there are ways to make sure you don't get mice, rats, insect infestations, etc. I always inspect produce because you can bring in roach eggs in produce from the store. I had a friend that worked in a surprisingly clean, mainstream grocery store (Jewel-Osco) who said that they'd find cockroaches and their eggs constantly in the potato bins and other areas of the store.
I don't let any gaps or holes exist in ventilation or walls. Overall, I have never had a mouse in my house, and spiders I can live with.
If a vegan had a mouse in their house how would you deal with it?
lo_mcg would scream "Auuuggghhh! Help me! Help me!"and jump up on a chair and then, since she called specifically for "me", I'd valiantly step in with a humane trap and capture the little mousy and release it far away in a field somewhere. Then I'd tell her to get a cat so she wouldn't have that problem anymore. :-)
Thumbs down? Will this get me thumbs up? Oh everyone, vegan <<<hugs>>> and butterfly kisses and pixie dust and unicorn breezes and sunny days and puppies and kittens........glorp! 8-x
I have two rescue cats! - If the cats did not get the the mouse first, i would do the humane catch and release. - But honestly, I konw my older cat, Abba is such a active little girl she would take care of the situation.
i read about this guy in india who put a large amount of cash in his bank locker and a few years later opened it and found that it had all been eaten by termites. well, that's the third world for you.