nature, red in tooth and claw
About twenty minutes ago I heard a funny clattery noise from the direction of my kitchen, and got up to see what had fallen over.
Not any of the dishes in the drying rack. Nothing on any of the counters. Not my poor pepper pots on the back porch.
And then I remembered that I do keep two mousetraps perpetually armed and baited (I use chunks of Snickers bars, because they don't rot) and they do sound a bit like falling dishes when they snap.
The one in the kitchen cupboard was untouched. The one under the bathroom sink, on the other hand... Bingo.
The mouse wasn't actually dead. I mean, it was fatally injured. There was no way it would recover, even if I'd pried up the trap and let it go. But it was lying there, twitching and breathing, and you know, I am okay with using snap-traps. I am okay with killing mice. But slow torment is cruel and unnecessary.
So I got a hammer from my toolbox (actually more of a tool plastic-bag-in-cardboard-box) and bashed its head in a few times. It stopped moving within ten seconds.
...
I feel kind of weird about taking a more active role in this particular mouse's death, but it's not like I don't already bear moral culpability for the previous mice I've killed with these traps, or with the mice I killed with similar traps during my years at the smoke shop. Nor do I really feel bad about reducing the number of mice in the world. They're cute, sure -- I'd never deny that -- but they're still vermin. They carry diseases, they shred important supplies (like my fucking tampons and pads, the last time one wandered around the bathroom cupboard unopposed), and they poop everywhere, which is incredibly unsanitary.
Anyway, I dumped the mouse corpse in the woodpile/compost pile in the backyard (which is where I dumped its predecessors last winter), I cleaned the hammer and put it away, I scrubbed down the interior of the cupboard, I scrubbed my kitchen cupboards for good measure (and found some telltale mouse poop, argh...), and I set the trap to soak in bleach and water overnight.
Tomorrow I'll buy a Snickers bar and bait two more traps.
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Not any of the dishes in the drying rack. Nothing on any of the counters. Not my poor pepper pots on the back porch.
And then I remembered that I do keep two mousetraps perpetually armed and baited (I use chunks of Snickers bars, because they don't rot) and they do sound a bit like falling dishes when they snap.
The one in the kitchen cupboard was untouched. The one under the bathroom sink, on the other hand... Bingo.
The mouse wasn't actually dead. I mean, it was fatally injured. There was no way it would recover, even if I'd pried up the trap and let it go. But it was lying there, twitching and breathing, and you know, I am okay with using snap-traps. I am okay with killing mice. But slow torment is cruel and unnecessary.
So I got a hammer from my toolbox (actually more of a tool plastic-bag-in-cardboard-box) and bashed its head in a few times. It stopped moving within ten seconds.
...
I feel kind of weird about taking a more active role in this particular mouse's death, but it's not like I don't already bear moral culpability for the previous mice I've killed with these traps, or with the mice I killed with similar traps during my years at the smoke shop. Nor do I really feel bad about reducing the number of mice in the world. They're cute, sure -- I'd never deny that -- but they're still vermin. They carry diseases, they shred important supplies (like my fucking tampons and pads, the last time one wandered around the bathroom cupboard unopposed), and they poop everywhere, which is incredibly unsanitary.
Anyway, I dumped the mouse corpse in the woodpile/compost pile in the backyard (which is where I dumped its predecessors last winter), I cleaned the hammer and put it away, I scrubbed down the interior of the cupboard, I scrubbed my kitchen cupboards for good measure (and found some telltale mouse poop, argh...), and I set the trap to soak in bleach and water overnight.
Tomorrow I'll buy a Snickers bar and bait two more traps.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)