Humane Mouse Traps (& My Personal Story)

The other night one of my twitter buddies asked what to do with mice in her house, and my obvious response was to trap it and set it free! I mentioned this to the bf, who said that the only way to trap them is with glue traps.. until I showed him this: http://www.humanemousetrap.info/

Even PETA sells this humane mice trap in their catalog for almost $3.00 cheaper than Amazon: http://www.petacatalog.com/products/Humane_Smart_Mousetrap-117-0.html 

My bf was a little surprised to see this contraption, and I know he was rather intrigued that I want to save mice. Many people have this negative view about these "pesky rodents." Of course, they are potential carriers of diseases but as an animal they are really adorable and intelligent, not too dissimilar from the cat, dog, or hamster you have as a pet. I firmly believe they deserve a chance to live and not die from a torturous, unnatural cause. Even as a kid, I was against the use of glue traps as I had once watched mice struggle and die on those torture devices...

This summer my cat had actually caught a mouse from the downstairs floor and brought it up to play with. She was batting it around with her paws, and the little mouse was immobilized-- I'm sure it was frightened. I was worried it would hurt my cat (if it was diseased) or my cat would hurt it with her claws, so I was thinking of a way to get it out of the house. My mom took a plastic bag, turned it inside out, and gently picked it up with the bag. When I placed my hand under the mice, I could feel the warmth of its little body through the bag and I saw it looking up at me. (It reminded me of the time I once visited a farm and petted a little lamb several years ago.. who not only looked at me with its sparkly eyes but also licked my hand-- from then on I could not eat lamb.)

Here's the little mouse before I set it free.. tell me, could you hurt him/her?

 

I ended up walking several blocks to a nearby park and dropped it off there.. although the recommended way is to drive several miles and relocate it that way, because mice are really intelligence and can find their way back if you don't far enough.