Disposing of rat caught in live trap!!

[hayley3]

First off, I moved to the "city" and to my shock there was a rat in my garage where I house my chickens.
I caught him in a live trap but I need a way to dispose of him, and I'm not sure how to kill him quickly.
Do I dump him in water or will he just jump out?
I need suggestions for methods....I can't just dunk my trap in water because it's kinda big.

 

[microchick]

Perhaps there is a way you could just release it somewhere far from your coop like the woods or a park? It’s already in a live trap, why kill it now?

I'm sorry, do not every release a captured vermin so that it become somebody else's problem.

I have enough fox, raccoon, rats, mice, voles, bob cats and cougars around us to last a lifetime.

I would be really POed if somebody dumped their nuisance pest outside our farm gate, and in the same breathe, I doubt if you would be overjoyed if somebody did the same to you.

 

[microchick]

Please understand, we are farm people. Here in Missouri when wildlife become a nuisance and we call the conservation dept as I once did when we had a female fox decimating area chicken flocks in order to feed her kits. I was told, any wild animal that threatens or kills livestock, it is a nuisance animal. Shoot it!

I love animals. We have 7 dogs, 5 cats and about 50 chickens right now. 5 of the dogs we rescued from a puppy mill, 2 were dumped as 7 week old puppies and found their way to our farm where we immediately adopted them.

Way too often people thing that country/farm folk have a place for stray animals and happily dump them at our door step. We are different from most. We do not shoot strays. We take them in, love them and give them the best life that they can have.

But rats and mice are vermin. Turn them loose? Unadvised. Little kids will come upon a sick rat in a park or sanctuary and try to pet the 'kitty'. Rat has rabies.....need I go on? What about relocated skunks and raccoons?

Last night I clubbed three mice to death. Did I enjoy taking their lives, no. It's bad Karma that I will have to struggle to overcome with good deeds. But I will continue to dispatch mice and rats in what ever means possible to protect the safety and health of ourselves and our pets/livestock.

I appreciate the sanctity of life. But I dare say that if you call any sanctuary and ask them to take a captured wild rat the last thing you will hear before they hang up on you will be their hysterical laughter.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Drowning is not humane in my opinion.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

If you found one rat, especially a pregnant one, you probably have at least 20 more running around your property. Setting up more traps, and finding a better and more efficient way to execute them would probably be the best next step.

 

[Bear1978]

Hammer to his head will end it quickly for him.

 

[Howard E]

First off, I moved to the "city" and to my shock there was a rat in my garage where I house my chickens.
I caught him in a live trap but I need a way to dispose of him, and I'm not sure how to kill him quickly.
Do I dump him in water or will he just jump out?
I need suggestions for methods....I can't just dunk my trap in water because it's kinda big.

Not so fast. There needs to be a sequential accounting of a timeline here.

When did you move to the "city"?

Was this rat in the garage when you got there, or did it arrive after you did and after your brought in the chickens and chicken feed and perhaps other pet food as well?

There is no such thing as "a rat". Its always "rats".....as in plural. Be thinking colony and be finding out how big it is and where they are living. Seeing one rat is like the tip of an iceberg. Lots more below the surface you can't see.

But whatever the case, the usual solutions apply. Limit access to all feed....that's all feed....chicken feed, cat food, dog food and anything else they can live on? And if you feel the need, at the same time, put out poison bait blocks (in bait stations......always in locked bait stations) so that the bait blocks become the alternative food source they turn to when the other feed dries up.

PS: If that had been me, I would have plugged it with an air rifle.....but that only works if you have one. The cheap, high powered single shot springers.....like you could find at Walmart..... in a .22 caliber.......works for dispatching almost all critters you will catch in a cage trap. But so does a single shot .22 rifle with cb caps or shorts. Kills em quiet. If a person is going to set a trap....Act I......, better have something ready for Act II......the dispatch.

 

[hayley3]

Ok, I came up with a solution...I hope it doesn't ruin the trap.
I bought a top entry litter box (for soaking chicken's feet) which is pretty deep and the trap fit down in there. Since the litter box has a hole in the cover...I put on the cover and then filled the box with water until it covered the trap.
I hate killing things but it had to go. It was not only scaring my goose, it was digging out the gravel foundation of my garage.

 

[microchick]

Plus just dumping the rat in water without the trap will not work. They are excellent swimmers which is how they travel through drain pipes in the big cities.

I was once told by city officials when I caught a large woodchuck when I was a town dweller to tie a rope securely to the trap (it was a BIG trap), toss it in the nearby river, wait 5 minutes then pull it out and dump the remains.

I'm a little gal and this dude weighed 20 pounds if it weighed an ounce. So it wasn't going to work. But with a rat? Yeah, good idea.

Death by drowning is not my first choice but sometimes it's the only way to get rid of a nuisance animal like a rat or mouse when you cannot fire off a weapon in the city.

There is always the option of using the suggested pepper spray rounds in a .22, drive out of the city limits and let Ms Rat leave the world without the aid of water.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

I think drowning a rat is much more humane than using a sticky pad and allowing them to chew their own limbs off trying to escape. It's a friggin rat.