John Savage wrote:

"0tterbot" writes:
having said all that, we HAVE in the past resorted to poison for smart
rats that refused to be caught any other way. as well as the fact that
it is most unkind as you pointed out previously, it creates problems
of it's own (bad smells & maggots from dead rats in walls, etc.) ime,
there's a variety of instant karma that results from poisoning things.

Blood thinner poisons seem to make the dying rodent cold; how else to
explain that it is not uncommon, after setting out poison, to find a
dead or dying mouse or rat lying on the lawn or a garden path in the
sunshine, in turn posing a danger to a kookaburra or cat. Probably
more do so than I realise, with most already having been snapped up
by a higher order predator.

Not specifically about dead rats but apparently insecticides are a problem
for birds:
http://www.ozarkwild.org/pp.php

Some very fine nets that used to be sold for fruit trees are a problem for
wildfile of many kinds. Wildlife gets entangled in the net and then
struggles so much to escape that they either get strangled or entangle
themselves even more, doing a lot of damage to themselves.
http://www.wildlifefriendlyfencing.c..._solutions.htm
http://www.sydneybats.org.au/cms/ind...=17,22,0,0,1,0

The good news is that the knitted white nets you now buy are ok provided
they are stretched tight. In fact, the possums at our place climb over
them and sit on them like a hammock.

Barbed wire can be a problem for wildlife too.
http://www.wildlifefriendlyfencing.com/index.htm

I've only ever had one animal trapped and injured in our fruit tree nets.
It was a bird I believe a young wattlebird which strangled itself trying to
escape. Curiously the older wattlebirds never seem to go near the fruit
trees - it has always been the young ones (but they are a minor bother
compared to the introduced animals and birds).

We've had a few other animals that have got inside the net (not tangled in
the net) and couldn't get out without assistance - birds (mostly
introduced) and once a brush tail possum.

We have some of the grey plastic mouse traps, which are supposedly more
humane than the old-fashioned wire spring traps. A couple of times we've
caught mice in these traps, and the mouse has only be caught by the foot,
and has then struggled so much it's leg is twisted and broken in multiple
places.