Humane pest control

Behaviours such as seeking shelter and food that are normal for an animal can cause minor inconvenience or annoyance for people and become a nuisance. In some cases, animal nuisance can be serious, especially if it impacts the health of humans, animals, or the environment. Animals that cause serious nuisance that leads to harm are often considered pests. Many of the problems associated with animals considered pests are a result of our own behaviour. We often create environments that are appealing to animals because they provide food, shelter, or safety.

SPCA acknowledges that it is sometimes necessary to manage populations of animals for a variety of reasons, including protecting biodiversity and preventing nuisance.

Efforts to prevent and reduce the harm from animals considered pests is called pest management or pest control. Unfortunately, there are pest management options available that cause severe welfare harm to the animal considered a pest. These options also can unintentionally harm other animals, people, and the environment. SPCA opposes the current use of poisons in pest management due to the severe welfare harms they cause to animals and the high risk of unintentionally poisoning animals that are not the target of pest management.

SPCA advocates that pest management should cause the least harm to the fewest animals and be based on an actual problem rather than negative perceptions of an animal. Other important considerations for pest management are discussed in this article.

Building design and construction can unintentionally attract unwanted animals. Including professional pest management consultants in the design and construction of a building can help prevent pest problems. For example, ensuring buildings designed with materials that do not create cavities can eliminate opportunities for animals such as rodents or birds from seeking shelter.

Landscaping design can create environments less inviting to unwanted animals, for example replacing dense shrubbery can make gardens less appealing to rats.

One of the most important things we can do to reduce unwanted animal visitors is to first change our own behaviour that may unintentionally attract animals. For example, seal up access points into garages and close doors when not in use to keep birds and rodents from seeking shelter. Tightly seal compost bin lids to keep rodents from seeking food. Avoid hanging bird feeders with seeds since these spill food onto the ground and attract rodents. Cover features such as sand pits or pools when not in use to deter cats from using them as a toilet. Keep a cover on the pool when not in use to help deter waterfowl from using this as a water source for swimming and drinking.

If you have done your best to modify your own behaviour and environment and still have problems with animal nuisance, physical excluders, and safe non-lethal animal deterrents can keep animals out of areas where their presence is unwanted or harmful.

Physical exclusion methods, such as fencing should rely on physically blocking access rather than the use of aversive stimuli such as electric shocks. Bird netting can prevent birds from roosting, perching, or nesting in places where accumulation of their droppings is a problem. Use high quality bird netting hung properly to avoid capturing birds. Make sure physical excluder devices are maintained to ensure they work effectively. For example, rodents may chew on excluders hung from the bottom of a door, which makes the excluder ineffective in keeping them out of an area.

Many deterrent devices on the market lack scientific evidence about their efficacy. For example, there is mixed evidence that ultrasonic devices work to deter cats or rodents from entering areas. Animals can become accustomed to devices intended to scare them away from an area. Therefore, we recommend using a combination of types of deterrents such as visual and auditory, and to use them unpredictably such as moving them around or placing them on a random timer for when they go off.

Deterrents can have unintended welfare impacts on animals that are the target of pest management or impact the behaviour or welfare of animals that are not the target. Bird gel repellents intended to cause temporary discomfort to a bird that touches the sticky gel with their feet can cause severe welfare harm and death to small birds that become coated in the sticky gel.

SPCA encourages you to talk to their neighbours to alert them that their companion or farmed animals may be making unwanted visits onto your property. A friendly conversation may help enlighten a person who is unaware their animal is negatively impacting neighbours. There are steps people responsible for the animals can take such as securing stock fencing and keeping their cats safe and happy on their property.

Live trapping

If you decide to use animal traps on your property, then make sure you understand your obligations under the Animal Welfare Act. There are obligations for how long a live trap can be set before checked. You will need a plan for what you will do with an animal before setting the live trap. All live trapping should be according to best practices where traps are set to avoid catching animals in inclement weather or experiencing thermal stress from the heat and cold.

SPCA advocates that traps use a monitoring system that alerts when the trap has gone off and to check traps more frequently than the legal requirement. It may be an offense under the Biosecurity Act to release animals legally designated as pests in an area. It is an offense under the Animal Welfare Act to drown an animal.

Some live traps such as leghold and glueboard traps are restricted based on type and location for where they can be used. SPCA opposes some live traps because of the welfare harms the trapped animal experiences. Traps that are legal to use that we oppose include leg-hold traps, live decoy bird traps, glueboard traps, and snares.

For animals that may be a person’s companion, such as a cat, there are steps you should take before setting a live trap.

Lethal trapping

Lethal traps should effectively cause a trapped animal to become insensible before death in the shortest period of time as possible. Animal welfare performance testing of lethal traps helps provide confidence in a specific trap being able to cause an animal to become insensible before death within a certain period of time. SPCA advocates that lethal trapping should only be done with traps that have passed welfare performance assessment. Check here for a list of lethal traps that have passed welfare performance assessment.

Traps should only be used if they are in good working order, set according to instruction, and designed for the species of interest. Lethal traps should have devices or housing that excludes animals not intended for trapping. For example, rodent traps should be placed in tunnels with mesh baffles that block animals such as birds or cats from entering the tunnel.

Pest management efforts should have clear, achievable objectives. This includes backyard issues with rats or large-scale rodent management in a building. Monitoring helps us ensure we are not causing needless harm to animals and that our efforts are making a difference.